RP: 4th Fleet [Mission 1] The Battle of South Gate

At the sight of the PA, Honoka ungracefully fell out of her seat and half hid behind it as she stammered into the mic, as this might have been her last action before they were all killed, "A- Attention all... F- Fourth Standard Flee- Fleet ships! Be... Be on the look out for kami-... kamikaze Misshu vessels!"

A wild shot from the unarmored attacker flew past Honoka's head missing it by a few scan centimeters and close enough that her hair crackled with static. The blast hit the forward wall near her console without causing any appreciable damage.

The Kylie clad attacker exchanged blows with Arkase. The Kylie may have been older than the Mindy, it was still a formidable opponent. The drones from the Kylie armor engaged with the ones Arkase had deployed. The attacker reactivated the Aether Saber in its Forearm weapon system. The attacker then lunged at the Daisy's abdomen with the blade, the blade failed to penetrate deeply as the Kylie was knocked back a few feet by the fire power of Arkase's weaponry. But the blade had carve a groove across the front of his Daisy. "Time to die pathetic puppet." came a female voice in the enemy armor as the wearer activated the other forearm weapon forming a second Saber.

"You're the enslaved bitch." Arkase grunted, popping his shield to be free of his arm, hefting it and throwing it as quickly as possible at the Kylie.

His drones began evasive maneuvers, throwing only a few shots around.

Arkase began to rush the Kylie, undoubtedly she'd slash apart the Shield -- and that was when he'd tackle her. His Daisy was bigger, he was bigger. Overpowering the woman and pinning her while his drones overwhelmed her helmet's Armour might be possible. Might be.

He'd find out soon.

Honoka cringed further behind her seat. This was not good. This was NOT good. She shakily brought her NSP up, switching it to heavy mode, and was about to take a shot at the Kylie, to try and help Arkase, but she saw him charge. What was he doing? Charging another power armor with DUAL AETHER SABERS? This was nuts!

The Kylie clad woman slashed at Arkase's tossed shield with one of the blades, and as he approached she lunged at him with the other. Her aim was off by centimeters and Arkase could feel the heat as her Aether saber slided into the side of his Daisy. The residual heat causing his skin to burn where the armor was pierced.

Arkase's Daisy was stronger than the older Kylie, and his drones made short work of the enemy NSD's. His momentum and strength pushed the two combatants out of the doorway, the impact of the two echoed in the hallways like the clash of two titans.

Unfortunately his large size created a problem for those in the flag bridge, it was now impossible for them to get a clear shot at the Kylie unless they changed their positions.

"Alpha team, on your deck, in position in 30 seconds" came over Arkase's suit speakers.

Arkase tried to pin her arms, and failing that, punched the Kylie's helmet while firing his forearm weapon. His drones would add their fire to his on the Kylie's helmet, trying to end the fight quickly.

"Damnit, die!" He roared from inside his helmet.

Kiyoshi fired a second blast at the second intruder just to make sure that it was down. "Hakumei-Hei notify Spirit City to open fire. Tell them to burn the skies."

Meanwhile outside the flag bridge, the attack group commenced its engagement of the NMX battleship. Deadly beams of destruction lanced from both sides, as the NMX ship continued to reverse its course. Smaller NMX ships sacrificed themselves by putting themselves in between the ships.

Then in a flash of blue white light the NMX Battleship leaped into hyperspace.

Across the fleet channel Honoka heard the commanders of several of the cruisers report that the Battleship had fled.

The attacker in the Kylie was first knocked unconscious by the barrage of Arkase's forearm weaponry directly to the helmet. And then when the armor failed was killed instantly when his blasts shattered its head. The Kylie went limp.

Arkase panted as he stood up and stumbled back into the room. The woman inside the Kylie was dead, and for now the Bridge was safe. The adrenaline that had coursed through him a moment ago left in a weak-kneed rush.

The Hei picked up his plasma rifle, and turned towards the door. Alpha Team would be there any second, but would any of them be traitors too? He didn't know, and a bit of paranoia would serve him well.

Back down in the damaged front section of the ship, the few remaining brave crew struggled to load torpedoes while praying the damaged hull didn't break on them. Despite they're best efforts, not even the requisitioned forklift could replace the autoloader. All of them unaware of the events happening outside. Silic swung the forklift around, the two forks sliding smoothly underneath the carry pallet for a torpedo.

“Not so fast Vas-Hei,” chided one of the two valkrja sitting on the back of the vehicle behind what was left of the cabin “I almost slipped.”

“Sorry Hei-San,” Silic replied, looking around to check on the two clinging to much battered metal “can't teach old Neps new tricks.”

Slowly raising the hydraulic forks, the torpedo was lifted a few inches above the deck, Silic reversed around and drove carefully towards the loader, where teams were using a pulley system to haul the weapons down the tunnel to the tubes. The process was slow, and inefficient, but slowly the tubes were filling up. Lining up the loading slot for the tunnel, he gently raised the torpedo up and set it down on the rails.

“Vas-Hei!” came a shout from across the room “Why do you have two of my team sitting on the back of your monstrosity?” demanded the repair team leader. Her hands on her hips, ears pressed down in anger.

Opening the cabin door and shouting around it “Extra counter weight, Nito-Hei. Keeps the back wheels firmly on the deck!” he replied, slowly backing up while a rather puffed out looking engineer hooked a line around the torpedo and then called for the rest of the team to start pulling.

"H- h- hai!" Honoka responded, her voice clearly shaky from the excitement/fear of near-death. She climbed back into her seat. As she situated herself, she stole a glance towards the fallen combatant and gagged slightly at the distinct lack of a head.

She had a bit of trouble listening to the incoming reports, what with the adrenaline pumping, but it eventually made itself clear. "Taisa... the battleship has fled, should Spirit City still open fire?" she asked, hoping this clarification wouldn't spell doom.

Kiyoshi turned to Honoka. "The Battleship may have fled, but there are still a large number of NMX ships in the area. If we do not continue to press them they will regroup. Spirit City is still to open fire. Instruct the attack group to come about. We will stay on this side of the Spirit City's attack just in case any of the NMX want to stay and fight."

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Meanwhile the crew loading the torpedoes had done the best they could. The impacts of the battle were unmistakeable. Granted the Nadare had engaged the last battleship with less than full tubes, but since it fled it was a moot point.

Silic after turning his forklift around to lift another pallet suddenly felt a strong warm breeze blow through the chamber. A portion of it passed through his damaged cab.

Silic felt his neck hairs prickle as the breeze passed over them, twisting in his seat he looked towards the door. Something told him that bad news was on it's way.

"Hai," Honoka replied, feeling stupid now.

"Attention attack group, you are ordered to come about as Spirit City opens fire," she sent out as she then switched to communicate with the station. "Spirit City, open fire! Take out those NMX ships."

After receiving the new orders, the ships of the attack group swung about to face the NMX vessels. Then Spirit City activated its most powerful weapon. A region of space between the Star Fortress and the attack group suddenly started to glow. The glowing region expanded and then blazed with nuclear fire. The Spirit City was firing its Directed Fold Cannons and other nuclear spheres of death formed. The NMX ships caught in the onslaught were destroyed their death throws adding to the blaze. The NMX vessels on the outer edges of the field of death began folding out of the area. Battlepods bereft of their mother ships took to attacking anything they could the attack group, the Spirit City any target was fair game. But it was a purely an act of desperation the NMX attack had been broken and was in retreat.

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As Honoka completed her transmission, she spied a centipede similar to those that had been fried trying to come in through the door. Only this one was on her console and moving towards her.

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Silic felt the moving air growing warmer and moving faster. Looking down the hallway from where it came he could see an orange glow that appeared to be moving toward the magazine and loading area.

Honoka froze in fear. With so many death-defying situations already, and this one on top of it, it was getting too nerve-racking onto the warrant officer. But, a moment later, she fell back out of her chair and she attempted to crawl away from her chair as she fumbled for her pistol.

'Bug thing! On my console!' she screamed out telepathically to those on the bridge, especially to Kiyoshi and Arkase.

Spinning around with a snarl, Arkase sent his drones to take out the bug on Honoka's Console. It would die, and quickly.

The drones flew with unerring accuracy towards the alien lifeform. They opened fire their energy frying it to ashes as well as slashing deep into the communications console. A shower of sparks flew out as the panels went dark, and Honoka was gifted with a squeal from her earpiece.

Honoka let out a pained squeal as her ears were assaulted again. Still grimacing, she told the AI to once again send things directly to her through telepathy, as well as translate things that were said on the bridge while her ears were ringing. Her console was toast anyway, so she'd need the former to be sent telepathically anyway.

Nervously, the aide, climbed back into her chair, spying on the fried remains of the bug. She put away her pistol as she sat back and tried to focus on her task, assuming that the frying of the console didn't make it so that the whole tactical station she was at was dead.

Honoka's station was fairly well slagged, but there were other stations on the Flag Bridge that she could transfer her operations to. Freya contacted her "Hakumei-Nitô Juni, the NMX vessels appear to be in full retreat. Those not destroyed by the Spirit City attack and the outlying ships are jumping out into Hyperspace. There are still a number of battlpods and bomberpods left behind but they do not present a real threat. Sensors are showing a fire is spreading below decks. The auto-suppression systems are non-responsive. Fire appears to be heading for the magazine."

Alpha Team turned the corner in time to see Arkase launch his drones into the bridge area. The four man team focused their armaments at him. "Freeze you squid loving traitor, twitch and we'll blow you a part." the leader said.

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Meanwhile below decks Silic saw what could only be described as a wall of flame rushing up the corridor. Being confined by the corridors the flames were rushing forward towards the source of oxygen. And worse yet the emergency systems appeared to be not working.

"Stand down, Alpha Team." Arkase growled. "Or I'll do to you what I just did to that Kylie you so happily stepped over. I am Oshiro Arkase, head of Taisho Shimizu's Staff Protection Detail." He was angry, and it seeped through his tone.

Having finished saying what he was going to say, he turned casually to look at Alpha Team.

"You're late, by the way."