RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 14.2] The Battle of Yamatai

Sune left the shuttle quickly being on the ground made it a lovely target and far to vulnerable for his liking.

He took a position a few meters to the right of Hanako. Damn the equipment shortage on the Eucharis. Having more ammo for the 50mm would be handy right about now, he thought to himself.

Upon hearing Helen's request for permission to use anti-matter weapons, Sune recalled the last time she did, and the affects it had on the crew. "Regardless of the evacuation status, anti-matter weapons should not be used. The backlash would be worse than this attack, the city may be evacuated, but there are always hold outs, and a detonation of such a device would have serious effects on the city's infrastructure," he said as he selected his left forearm for submachine gun and the right for beam mode. He felt this would give him the best of both for dealing with the threat. He then deployed his NSD's to help with targeting.

"Absolutely no anti-matter weapons use on a friendly planet," Hanako hissed, enraged by the sheer reckless stupidity of such an idea.

Just then, the first of the enemy attack began to come into range. A shower of tank rounds came slamming down all around them, some exploding with concussive force and others sending out burning white phosphorous. There was a lot of smoke. As the NMX tanks and mecha converged on the edge of the city the sound of the rain was joined with the sound of explosions and gunfire.

Akemi rushed along the right side of the wall to escape the blinding light and smoke that enveloped her. She stopped and knelt down behind a smaller chunk of rubble. There she deployed her drones and relied on them and her suit to target enemies for her until she fully recovered from the disorientation of the bombardment. She continued to aim at the Rippers despite the fact that they had yet to give them trouble.

Takeyu gave a scowl as he sought cover from the bombardment, then deployed his drones to serve as overwatch and to feed footage and telemetry data to the squad.

He checked his rifle, then sighted on an approching Ripper and waited until it got into range. A high pitched whine blew through his speakers, letting him know that he had a missile lock on an NMX tank in the distnace, he waited a few breathes then unleashed a salvo of missiles in the direction of the tank before moving to another piece of cover and sighting back on the NMX Ripper that was currently being targetted by another crewmen.

"Rules of engagement confirmed." Helen acknowledged, as she mulled over the situation. To her, it was a simple matter... a few explosions, a few ruined buildings, what was it to a culture that was without boundaries of natural born flesh, and the limitations of finite resources. In Helen's professional opinion, hesitation lost wars, and left the enemy able to take land and equipment. However, she also knew that to fight near any civilians was not only a matter of the war, but it was also a matter of winning hearts and minds, or, in the case of fighting on a friendly front, it was a matter of keeping the faith of the hearts and minds of the people.

There was not much else to do at that point, other than to try to minimize damage, while optimizing damage output. Linked to her armor and sensors, Helen decided to take an active part in ensuring things went right for the defensive. As she skimmed along the city wall, she went about switching targets, locking onto the tank shells, before unleashing volleys from her aether Gatling to intercept the ordinance mid-air. When the opportunity presented itself, in the form of no rounds being present to intercept, she would snap her aim to the sources of the ordinance, unleashing all four barrels of the weapon at once, producing a circular aetheric projection aimed at the guns of each vehicle she fired upon.

Ramiro stretched his arm as he saw the enemies approach the fringes of his range. The moment that he had the opportunity, he carefully aimed his weapon at the treads of one of the tanks and fired. He would fire two shots at one tread of a tank before taking two shots at the other and then repeating the process until the treads had taken enough damage to limit movement. He would then simply switch targets to another tank once the first was disabled.

Sune waited until his NSD's gave him what he needed. He then stood up and fired both of his forearm weapons. His right arm was targeting a tanks left tread. While he fired the left one in an arc to slow down the enemy by laying suppression fire.

Once he had fired, he dropped beneath the rubble and moved to another point on the wall. Figuring it was best to keep moving, then firing, lest the NMX get a fix on him.

Nathaniel cursed to himself when the NMX shells rained down all around him. Non of the shells managed to score a hit on the armor but he ran a quick diagnostic just to be sure everything was still intact. Tsk, NMX sure like to show off He thought to himself when the diagnostic noted him nothing was damaged except for the already damaged parts.

So much targets, so little weapons. Feels like the old days. He thought back on the time Elysia was attacked by the NMX and he found himself in the same situation where several additional weapons would have been handy.

He quickly dashed towards a half destroyed pillar and took a few seconds so that the computer could calculate the distance and enemy composition. After the computer completed calculating the data he took a single step away from the pillar with the rifle aimed at one of the rippers on the back lines. In a split second the rifle roared as it unleashed a destructive shot of phased plasma towards the pelvic region of the Ripper. Ten seconds... Nathaniel ducked behind the pillar again and counted the seconds before he could fire another shot with the rifle. Although destructive in its regards that it could ignore shields and armor of the target the weapon suffered from a six shot per minute rate of fire. Something He wasn't really fond of. What, was that quote again? If one is enough to do the job, bring two?

Outskirts of Kyoto

Through the pouring rain, drifting smoke, and hailing bullets, the NMX forces surged forward towards the city wall in a V formation with their tanks and Flayers up front, followed by Rippers. By this point the exchange of fire was intense and merely standing up was risking being mowed down.

Akemi was able to hit a Ripper. It must not have been made well, for her charged shot was able to take it down in one hit. A another RIpper took the place of the first one and began firing aether beams back at Akemi.

Helen managed to take down two tanks before a tank round obliterated a piece of wall that she was standing on.

Through his sights, Ramiro could see more Rippers and tanks coming out of the darkness with angrily-glowing sets of four eyes. He was able to disable the treads of one, and a worried looking NMX neko popped out of the top with a toolkit.

Sune was also able to stop a tank by hitting its tread. A group of Rippers simply flipped it its side and used it as a shield as they moved forward, pushing it across the wet grass.

Hanako activated her ECM armor's systems while using one of her heavy aether cannons to shoot at the spider tanks.

Just then, the NMX tanks and tankettes unleashed a swarm of hundreds of missiles that raced towards the defenders.

"Get down!" the Shosho yelled, activating her point defense system.

Sune recalled his NSD's and configured them for defense in case any of the bombardment came his way. He also activated his countermeasure pods. Meanwhile he pulled out his LASR and started peppering the enemy area with SLAG-SLEX lobbing them so as to give maximum spread.

Akemi set her drones to primarily defend against any missiles coming her way. She then fired a beam at the tank the Rippers were using for cover and while continuing to crouch, moved behind a more intact portion of the wall that would fully conceal her whether standing or not. As she took her new position she switched her right forearm to shield mode.

Takeyu reset his sights on the Ripper that had fired on Akemi, as he let loose a stream, he suddenly ducked down and was about to change location. As he ran, he heard Hanako's warning and cleaned up, his HUD pinging several objects in the sky. Oh crud.. he thought as he recalled the drones and reset them to point defense mod before he was about to engage his counter-measure pod - only to notice he didn't have one.

Curses flew from his mouth, thankfully muted by him not transmiting, as he brought up his forearm shield projectors to protect himself from the bombardment.

When the wall she stood upon was obliterated, there was little to no worry expressed by Helen as she performed a flip off of the wall, before breaking into a hover. That was when she saw what Hanako exclaimed to hide from. A frown crossed Helen's features, if they were missiles comparable to those used by the Star Army of Yamatai, those hundreds of missiles would likely have the combined firepower to take out or cripple a Sharie-Class Battleship, never-mind what they would do to their meager wall and dug in defenses. There was no hesitation, she had to simply continue doing what she was doing before, but with a bit more effort.

With all four barrels of her aether Gatling spinning and releasing a stream of aetheric energy, and her forearm projector set to a constant beam setting, Helen laid into her work as the missiles tore through the air. Sweeping motions of her arms with weapons blazing laid down ribbons of aetheric energy, aimed at the missiles which she had the proper vantage point to engage. She timed her shots, intending to detonate missiles in the paths of other missiles. Missile launcher covers sprang open upon her legs, before missile-avoidance ordinance spewed from their launchers in the paths of missiles which she had a poor capability to engage from her firing position. She was no fool though, after a few seconds of her intercepting routine, she broke away, descending below the edge of the wall, before breaking into a quick skim along the ground, headed for what solid cover she could find.

Sune was hunkered down as best as he could. He noticed movement behind the team, he was about to shout a warning when his HUD identified them as friendly. A pair of TASHA emerged from behind the nearest buildings, their 35mm machine guns firing a hailstorm of rounds at the incoming missiles. When the rounds struck a missile it exploded in the air harmlessly. While the cannons were whittling down the onslaught, each of the Tasha swung their 105mm Gauss/Plasma Cannon and began firing at any large NMX target their systems could detect; their cannons adding to the artificial thunder.

Eight Daisy clad soldiers moved along ahead of the TASHA units. Four of them took to the air courtesy of their Fusion Pack and flew past the Eucharis crew members at an altitude of 10 meters, firing their Ke-M6-W2921 Plasma rifles at any object and then touching down, only to repeat the maneuver moving in a different direction using velocity and constantly changing position to buy them time.

“Harada-Jôtô Hei of the First Legion, we couldn’t let you folks have all the fun. Figured you might appreciate a hand..” The lead person of the second group said as they approached the crew. He deflected a missile with his elliptoid shield, the projectile striking a nearby empty building.

“Hell of a day to visit though.” He said casually as he watched it explode. He sent a command via his AIES and the TASHA moved took flight hovering and moving in an evasive party. He leapt into the air along with his fire team; firing away at the enemy while sluicing sideways.

Ramiro had hunkered himself as best he could, thankful for all of the shield modules on his unit. With the arrival of the First Legion however, he grinned inside his Mindy.

"It was nice of you guys to drop by!" Ramiro responded before returning to his prone position and taking aim. His first target was the tank that he had disabled. Taking the opportunity given to him, he took aim at the hatch that the Neko had popped out of, intent on shooting the hatch off and leaving a nice opening for their friends above. After taking a couple shots he switched targets to another tank and continued the same process as before, attempting to disable the Tank's movement.

"Thank you very much sir," said Akemi to Harada. Still ducking down, she returned to the little chunk of wall she had been using as cover a moment ago. Seeing the tank she had shot at was still moving forward on its side and noting that Takeyu had been specifically trying to work with her she decided to seek his help. "Nitô Juni Nayacesen, do you think we should try to target this group of Rippers together?" As she asked the question she resumed firing at the tank, this time with both her weapons set to submachinegun mode.

Takeyu let out a sigh of relief. "Well that was much needed relief there," he smiled and disengaged his projector and glanced over the covering, what's when he heard Akemi's request.

He brought his rifle up to scan the assortment of enemies on the field. "Given how much of a pain they are going to be?" He asked a rehectorical question as he primed his missile pods and launched a salvo toward the tank. "Let's take them out, then we can concentrate on anothe group together.

Aiming down the scope of his rifle, he began to let lose of a stream of fire toward the tank that several Rippers were hiding behind.

"I thank you for helping me earlier sir," said Akemi in her standard formal tone. She really appreciated having him watching over her. If she became the target of consistent enemy fire once more she would switch her left forearm back to shield mode and adjust her position to conceal more of her body.

Ramiro's shot didn't take off the hatch but it did catch the tank's attention. Its turret turned to face him and fired a high-explosive round.

As the remaining missiles slammed into soldiers and fortifications around them, the Eucharis crew was confronted with a surge of Ripper armors that followed the initial tank wave. As they rapidly rushed into the defenses, the Rippers activated their aether blades and began cutting down defenders. The wave of Rippers was followed by a rush of unarmored infantry Nekovalkyrja with Impaler rifles and a swarm of parasites headed for the city.

A Ripper plowed into Hanako and tackled her to the ground, followed by a second one that ignited its blade to strike. The Ripper group also bum rushed Takeyu and Akemi.

The remaining Flayer tankettes were teaming up on the TASHA tanks.

"We need more air support," Blueberry complained. "Shosho!" The Shoi slammed her aether blade into the Ripper's arm before it could stab at Hanako. It turned and shot Blueberry at point blank with its remaining arm.

Akemi promptly switched both her weapons to aether blades and tried to swerve around the approaching Rippers to get to Hanako. As she moved she remained low to the ground to decrease her profile and slashed at any enemies that came her way with upward strikes. The soldier also ordered her drones to attack the enemies in her way hoping they would serve as a distraction. She did not expect to succeed, but she figured she should make protecting her commander her top priority regardless. Should she find it exceedingly hard to reach her desired destination she would raise her stance and resign herself to fighting the enemies blocking her. If Akemi did manage to reach Hanako she'd first attack whichever Ripper seemed to pose the greatest threat to her and try to interpose herself between her and any others.