- RP Date
- 15日 3月 YE 42
- RP Location
- Forward Base and a Kuvexian Sector
((OOC: Joint Post between members of Kaiyō crew posted in segments. Thread title translates to a friendly, cooperated effort.))
15日 3月 YE 42
Forward Planetary Outpost
Base 1B
POM 4
Teien Eden’s black head glinted in the soft light of the the significantly expanded POM Qonset Hut ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=stararmy:buildings:type_33_prefab_outpost:quonset_hut)) that she, her crew and a thousand or so others were in. Above her, the convex walls of the outpost module were made of recycled starship hulls. Though they were seamlessly integrated into one another, she still wondered if she would be able to see a distinctive piece of the original YSS Kaiyō. Her amber eyes searched before a tug at her jacket’s hem prompted her to look down at the tugger, Taiyou Hoshi.
Hoshi eyes prompted Eden to look back to the line of Nekovalkyrja Type 33 Eihei and 33A on an elevated stage before her. They were situated in the front row of a group of a thousand Rikugun and Third Fleet soldiers detached to the Kuvexian front line with them. Taiyou Hoshi was among many captains assembled, listening to the briefing happening before them. The 200 centurions were all being briefed in waves amongst other large Qonset Huts by command leaders and there had been many briefings like this from the same command leaders, so Hoshi had offered to deliver the briefing herself to reprieve them. The Legion 777 ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=stararmy:units:legion_777)) Commander, Shôshô Uzume herself, had been slotted to give this briefing and the Kaiyō captain’s request had been denied. She listened intently now, hoping Eden would too.
The mission was strategic but straightforward; a lot of which was made possible by the Kaiyō crew’s independent operations in the area.
Intelligence reports showed that a number of Kuvexian corporations had recently moved a majority of their operations out of a sector’s core planets and into a nearby military sector. The ships of the Third Fleet would be creating a blockade around where the corporations had moved to while also taking their military base there. YSS Kaiyō II did have a good amount of ground missions behind it, so was being deployed as a ground force. False data had been given to the Kuvexians about an attack planned to be tomorrow, the 16th, so the majority of Kuvexian space forces in this area of their domain had been moved out of certain strategic locations- this military sector, the surrounding passageway of space, and a few others nearby that the Yamataian strike force would be deploying to take.
The sector they were striking had four main systems that formed a grid network. Once one went down, the other three would be easier to capture. This group would be one of others to whose objective would be to de-establish the system's whole network by neutralizing the orbital installations and defensive ground forces of one planet in order to sabotage the system's network.
Eden looked towards where Wulf was, hoping to shoot him a message about Penny being the messenger of that data, but she thought better of it. She knew finding the Neko they had given away to the enemy wasn’t a priority at the time and she only wanted to remind him of that when there was good news. As her gaze was scanning back up to the speaking Shôshô, she caught sight of Wyatt. Painfully aware that yesterday had been Saya’s due date, she had gone to see him. It was still hard for her to think of her own lost daughter and wife, but her resolve to be sure the missing crew weren’t loss forever like them steamed in her as she clenched her fists and looked ahead. She knew the mission to get them was only just out of their grasp, though, and that the duty to keep on with their barrage against the Kuvexians was all they could do until they knew the position of Saya, Aiko, and William. With renewed interest, she listened more intently to the Shôshô.
"And so centuries sixty nine, seventy, and seventy one will assault the final orbital platform while remaining Taii lead their troops in a direct assault on Planet Borlel's defensive hardpoints," Uzume said while a volumetric map animated the target world, its Kuvexian garrisons, and the Star Army's formations on their attack routes. She had a gentle voice that managed to deliver its message in very officious order, and wore an ankle-length pleated skirt with her 30C uniform that recalled her old samurai's hakama.
"One of the legion's Plumeria — the YSS Kusa, and her armor team — plus the YSS Kaiyō II's armor team are assigned to spearhead our planetary attack and strike these two relay installations while the bulk of our centuries secure related infrastructure and ground around them," the admiral continued while the map zoomed in on planet Borlel and their targets. She said no more for some time, then, until some of the soldiers assembled before her began to murmur.
"That is your mission," Uzume said at last, before any conversations could really take off. "Go, now, and ensure your centuries and crews are ready to launch within the hour."
1 Hour Later
Kuvexian Space
YSS Honne- Kagai class
Power Armor Launch Bay
The short section of space had been overtaken by the three centuries that the Kaiyō crew was a part of. The Kaiyō ship itself was operating with only some of its normal crew while most of its forces were aboard a Kaiga, ready to deploy via the rectangular doors in the launch bay. For now, they were closed as the Kagai moved through the sector, prowling near Planet Borlel, its destination.
Eden tapped her knuckles together as she walked from the ready armory with Rei, passing other units of powered armor warriors prepping within the huge launch bay. There were 100 other power armors here beisdes her own, a joyful sight for lonely eyes such as hers.
“You really should try going without a handheld,” she said to the samurai, clad in her own Sarah M7. The second officer, Eden, was in her Mindy but had only the shoulder aetheric pulse cannons and nodal support bits as leg mounted mini missiles as weaponry. Otherwise, she had a leader support pack on her chest and standard Mindy 4 bits and bobs.
Rei was steadfastly silent as she walked, before she took a position near Gravity and spoke.
“I will retain my sword, Chusa,” Rei said, referring to the aether beam rifle of her Sarah M7.
Kiyo was silent as she listened to the briefing, no word of locating Saya, William, and Aiko, which pissed her off. She knew her duty, and she knew things would be fine; she can take her anger out on some Kuvexians no problems. She hoped they got lucky and found the location on their teammates, maybe they will find that in this mission. During the briefing she gently clutched Wulf’s hand in her own as she listened, her face expressionless as she kept herself calm as much as she could.
Hours later, she was in her Mindy, with her personal standard armament, and her aether katana, Silverlight, as well her aether blaster saber in both hands. “Chusa, I also wish to retain my swords, besides my personal standard armament.” She replied, though realizing since she hadn’t been spoken to, she might get into trouble for speaking out of turn.
Valkyr sat on top of the Power armor bay, as the havoc drake waited for action. She chirped as if to say that she was ready to kill too.
Kikios would be taking her usual (unusual) Mindy loadout with Kalamari arms, NSBs, a missile pod, scalar machine gun, and Saber-Rifle. Though she'd taken this loadout a few times before, she hadn't actually gotten to test it that much since she wasn't in real combat that often.
Ever the social butterfly, Gravity had managed to break through the cultural barriers that separated the navy from the ground-pounders during their short time together. As a result, the nice infantry neko had loaned her some of their warpaint. As she inspected herself on her communicator's selfie-cam, she had to admit that while she'd never really been a makeup girl, she really loved the two navy-blue stripes leading from the bottom of her eyelids to mid-cheek.
She could get used to this. As Nepleslian death metal softly played from her speaker, Gravity took a moment to inspect what she dubbed her "stealth build". A 50mm gauss cannon, with back-mounted extended magazine. An aether machine gun on the other shoulder, and mini-missiles on both legs. Starlight, meanwhile, stayed behind. No use taking him into an armor fight.
Eden gave a short burst of laughter at Kiyo's request, "Don't worry, Weeyico-hei. I know it's a matter of personal preference. Keep your swords and I'll keep my arms, though neither is match for warpaint like Gravity's."
Narumi had a very standard loadout for her Mindy with mini-missiles, nodal bits, and a coherent aether weapon. The last bit a popular weapon with the Giretsu. And also like a Giretsu, she didn't really have much to say, instead focusing on the task at hand.
The faceplate of Wyatt's TARSA was currently open, resting steadfast on his forehead and exposing the Operative's unshaven face, casting oppressive shadows down over the Minkan's usually bright eyes. He... was going through a lot, understandably, but wouldn't be able to call himself SAINT if he wasn't able to push his emotions and personal biases back into their bottle.
So instead his mind was focused solely on the mission and ensuring his gear was good to go, the man's sleek suit of dark-blue armour currently being kitted out for the overwatch role he'd be providing. The coppery, clearly affected man had saved this particular loadout under the name "Displacer", a creature from Saya's much beloved tabletop game.
He watched the other mill around, AHAMR rifle slung across one shoulder with a LATR currently resting in the crook of his arms, finding a little solace in the fact some of the others were able to maintain high spirits at least before the Minkan sealed his helmet's face plate.
Having caught sight of the stubbled and shadowed face of their SAINT operative, Eden quipped, "Next time, Gravity, share that warpaint, would you? You're not the only-" as Eden was speaking, the KAMI of the ship spoke over the ship's comms.
"Condition One," the KAMI reported to the launch bay. "Prepare to deploy."
As the launch bay's doors rose, replaced with only a force field between the armors and the blue and green world below them. It was ringed with hazy blue and white layers of the atmosphere on the peripherals of their vision, which became obfuscated as the Kami class shuddered through the exosphere. Within several seconds of anticipation and wait in the bay, the Kagai reached its destination, the stratosphere.
The grouping of Nekovalkyrja in armors nearest the large rectangular doors ballooned up and then down, beyond view as they launched. The next line of power armored soldiers unmoored themselves and moved out, quickly dropping into the layers of atmosphere hugging the planet below. Next up to launch were the row the Kaiyō crew were within.
"Yamatai Banzai!!!" Narumi screamed out as she was launched to bring death to those below.
The team's half-Elven Minkan would simply step out of the ship when it was his turn to drop, arching his back and letting gravity tumble his armour into the correct orientation before moving along his assigned flight path.
Kiyo stepped into place as Narumi screamed, not wanting to be outdone, she also shouted. “Come and die Kuvexians!” She shouted as she jumped out of the ship and headed down hard and fast towards the planet.
Wincing slightly beneath his helmet and sensing there would be more yelling Wyatt momentarily dialled down the volume of the team's comms system a few notches.
Yells of the excitement before battle clung behind them as they descended fast and far from the ship. The cloud layer that seemed far flung in its pillowy depth was soon being broken through by the armors in front of them, swallowing them from sight, before Eden and the line of armors were through and past it, too.
"Engaging enemy vessels!" came a quick reply from a group lower than them.
Below them, their route was clearly marked through a pass between snow-clad mountain, but the Kuvexians had employed the time between the alerts of the approaching vessels and now to deploy their own defensive measures. Small and large gunships skittered through the path that the armors were taking. Other enemy ships appeared within visual range around the nearby enemy base- the Yamataian's destination.
There were a few dozen in total, one of which suddenly burst into flame and careened out of the sky and in the path of Eden and some of those around her, forcing her to teleport quickly in front of the ship to avoid being knocked down and out of the air. The Chusa was still flying forward towards the base, but with the enemy's ground forces surprising stock of gunships they had no doubt shaken out of storage, she wasn't sure their entrance to the base would be as simple as the front door.
"Gekichin!" came another voice over comms, establishing an attacked starship had been sunk.
"Lucky shot!" came a sharp reply.
Eden shot into her team's comms, "Create a doorway! Take out as many ships as you can!"
A large cyan beam of aether energy sang out from Narumi as she fired her coherent aether rifle. In short controlled bursts, she focused on an incoming gunship that dared declare its intention to target her.
Swapping to his other rifle Wyatt began slowly and methodically unloading his AHAMR into the engines and missile pods of approaching gunships whenever the opportunity arose, sending slug after caustic slug screaming out his rifle's barrel at supersonic speeds.
Though Wyatt's slugs needed to pierce before delivering payloads, his repeated shots into a gunship trying to close the distance between the base and the descending waves of infantry Nekovalkyrja destabilized the ship enough for its missile bays to ignite in a small plume of fire that ate at the shredded hull before the gunship's own payloads blossomed in a glowing explosion that inflated outwards.
The end result was likely a bitter fall to the snowy precipice below like the ship that had fallen before it, but the team was moving past that ship as well as the one that had targeted Narumi and not taken any outwardly apparent damage from her.
Anti-Mecha power mode not putting a dent in the ships, Narumi opts to just focus on dodging weapons fire instead. She holsters the weapon on her shoulder and continues the fall down.
Gravity corkscrewed around Wyatt like a bird. She hadn't ever really been a part of a large scale PA battle, but she had to say that so far this was pretty easy. This was just like a normal space battle, except now she was in a nimble little armor instead of a three hundred meter gunship. Her shoulder-mounted machine gun tracked an incoming armor and lit it up at the same time that her 50mm gauss cannon began dialing in on the powerplant of the next ship in line.
"Oops." she muttered.
“Hai” was the only response Eden would get from the Azure Sword Kat as the Neko came down. She saw her comrades even her sister acting spectacularly. She gripped her Silverlight tightly, activating its secondary mode as she came down soon bringing herself at Gravity’s side. “Excellent work sis!” she said before she went on the attack as she got an idea and aimed for the cockpit of the nearest enemy gunship she saw.
Eden's voice splashed in over comms, "Target sensitive areas of their gunships, like engines!" The kinetic energy damage from Gravity's four foot gauss cannon had penetrated the reactive engine of the enemy vessel.
"Same goes for you, Yoshinaga-hei!" Eden said, shifting her focus to Narumi.
She directed the clerk's and her team's attention to a comoliment of armors ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=faction:kuvexia:military:roles:infantry)) that had deployed out of a gunship. It had been an emergency ejection as the ship plummeted into the white and rocky precipice below. Waves of compact snow arched away from the ship, obscuring some of them from view, though the ship had fallen precariously close to their path and now they faced an imminent wall of about forty armors about to ascend.
"Thirty plus hostiles at twelve o'clock low!" Warned Gravity, who opened up on the mass with a combo of machine gun fire and mini missiles before they could gain momentum.
"I see them. They are going to be 30+ dead Kuvexians soon." Narumi said as she went to take hold of her coherent rifle and made her suit ready for evasive maneuvering. Once the weapon was fully hot a few seconds later, she let loose controlled bursts of full powered cyan aether at the golden swarm. She relied on her training back at SAIC to keep her mind, body breathing controlled enough to minimize shots hitting non-vital areas.
Pausing in her pitch forward in her Srah M7, Rei’s raised her forearm. After the aether projector pitched out of her armor, the energy submachine gun began firing at the armors that plumed above the soft churning of snow and ship. The combined shots of her and her comrades near her caught a handful of armors, sending four tumbling back downwards.
Initially, the enemy armors were being piloted to elevate and avoid being swallowed by snow and wreckage, but soon they were negotiating the uncertain battlefield. A few jutted out and away from the Kaiyō team, launching themselves towards the Rikugun soldiers nearer the base as they engaged the gunships there, while half of the initial group turned their attention more towards the approaching groups, including Eden’s team. Some of the armors aimed their own weaponry while others worked to close the distance between them and the groups onslaughting their base.
Narumi continued with her controlled shots at the advancing Kuvexians. She narrowed her profile as much as possible and focused on any trying to flank a teammate.
Kiyo nodded ’hai” she replied as she turned her attack on the gunship’s engines before she spotted the arrival of the enemy power armor. She charged at one, all the while preparing her attack upon them.
"Don't get greedy, Kiyo! We still have plenty of help." Advised the elder sister, referring to the remaining waves of friendlies still streaming in from the rear. With only about 20 armors actively opposing them, it would make sense to allow their superior numbers to do most of the heavy lifting. Staying high, Gravity began laying down a wall of suppressing fire, using her shoulder-mounted MG to autotarget the armors in the back while using the rifle in her hands to keep baddies away from Kiyo.
"Gravity's right," Eden called out. Her momentum hadn't yet dropped as she launched through the cluster of armors.
When she saw a duo of armors approaching, Rei took up a profile like Narumi's to avoid the energy melee weapon one held.. Then, with an armored boot and thrust, the samurai kicked at one armor, pushing it into the other at the right second. Her capacitor whirred as energy built up for a more powerful short range burst at the disoriented pair. She looked to Eden, following her own path away from the advancing armors and towards the six gunships that remained. The gunships weaponry seemed to be next to useless as were the shielding, but Eden called out the real threat.
"Armor troops deploying from two more vessels!" As she said it, racks of armors dropped out of the bottom of two ships and within a second, the first groups of them were being let loose on the battle stage. It looked like the last ship had lost a large fraction of its compliment as each ship had at least a hundred armored soldiers release from the ships. "Target remaining gunship's missile bays." Eden said, remembering how Wyatt had decimated a gunship early on by doing so. Damaging the ship's engines isn't enough, ensure complete vessel destruction before more enemy armors can join the battle!"
"Roger! Firing!" Gravity affirmed and rocketed off, moving away from the main fray to better line up shots with the 50mm on the missile bay of one of the remaining vessels. One of the squids tried to get cute and impale her from behind with his blade. She grabbed the enemy armor by the wrist and with her free hand jammed her weapon up under its chin. After holding down the trigger for a good few seconds, she casually tossed it away like trash and resumed her objective. "Enemy armor Alpha Mike Foxtrot."
Eden gave a quick laugh at Gravity's parting words to her enemy, but the missile bay remained intact. What's more, the time before the four gunships released their payload onto the battlefield was likely diminishing.
Kiki surmised she would have a good chance of hitting a missile if she used her aether beam saber-rifle's beam setting to sweep across the missile bays, unless they were protected it would likely set them off easily. Using her Saber-Rifle's beam mode she allowed the beam to blast by and carefully drift across the missile bay of a gunship for three seconds, before switching targets and repeating the process for two other gunships. Due to her weapon's limitations she needed to give it a moment before she could fire it again after that, but hopefully at least one of the missile bays would detonate.
The first target Kikios had set her sights on was a formidable kill. The ship had likely diverted power to their insubstantial shields. The time it took to puncture them delayed the inevitable: the aetheric energy seeped into the volatile weapons compartments, causing a brilliant fireball that was surrounded by the crackling black web of blown up hull and ship alike.
With how hazardous the battlefield was at the current moment, it made sense that not all of Kikios' three targets were struck and detonated. An armor advanced unwittingly into her line of fire and caught her saber-rifle's beam. The armor's shields were ripped to shreds and the passing beam took off their armor's arm and a portion of their hip. Eden swiveled to deal a final blow with her shoulder's aetheric pulse cannons.
Teien Eden's gaze followed to Kikio's final target and noticed the gunship the engineer had targeted had been beginning to lower its grouping of power armors when its missiles bay nearest Kikio's erupted in a small explosion, shattering the ship.In the next moment, a larger explosion plumed to engulf the whole of the ship, armors included.
The second officer diverted her gaze to the remaining gunships to see that those that were not destroyed had successfully deployed their cache of soldiers. The battlefield was abuzz with the swarm-like activity of Yamataian against Kuvexian armors, engaging in melee and long range fire. Eden's own breastplate was knicked as she took stock.
"Kusa armor team!" Eden flung into comms, "Moving to infiltrate enemy base!"
"Roger Kaiyō team leader," came a snappy reply as Eden relayed the order to move in to the enemy stronghold at the woody base of the snow laden valley. A maelstorm of activity lay between them and it. Shots of all calibers between enemy and ally alike created deadly obstacles and there was no clear path of safety within the valley's battle heavy sky. Even few sparse ground troops had begun engaging one another below.
Eden streamed forward, tracking what she could see and avoiding it while letting her intuition guide her passage. Shots darted, some aimed at her and her team members alike. As she moved further into the fray, a kinetic shot pushed her off her course and the Nekovalkyrja was pushed into the hull of a gunship she had been flying near. Around her right fist, her armor's solid volumetrics hardened into a sturdy blade that she plunged into the ship, slowing her skidding to a stop. She pushed a leg up and thrusted from the gunship, facing it as she jettisoned a missile from her leg mounts, watching it tear through the small hole she had struck into it- one that became a ghastlier, bigger hole of shrapnel. She didn't have the opportunity to complete the downing of the vessel as she turned away, flying towards the base and out of lines of fire once more.
Kiyo heard her sister’s words in her earpiece, and then the confirmation from Eden, that confused her at being thought to be greedy, but they were right, there were a lot of soldiers on their side who can be of help, she needn’t try to take as many soldiers as she wanted but she did want to release her anger. “Sis, your amazing” she commented as she saw her sister attack their enemies as she too went for the attack, not wanting to be outdone by her sister, who she admired.
The finely-calibrated propulsion systems of Wyatt's TARSA continued to make corrections for him as the ginger-haired black panel kept on descending with the team, small bits of shrapnel bending and distorting as they bounced off his suit's unseen hard-light shield. The Operative saw Eden's work and seized the opportunity to finish what the higher-ranking Neko had been unable to, twisting his body in the air to momentarily slow his own fall and take a shot at the compromised armor plating.
"Chusa, I spy a ridge off to the east slightly that looks like it has potential. Do you have anything against me setting up there, when we touch down, to keep the enemies pinned down?" Wyatt's cold, blunt voice echoed through the shared comms system.
15日 3月 YE 42
Forward Planetary Outpost
Base 1B
POM 4
Teien Eden’s black head glinted in the soft light of the the significantly expanded POM Qonset Hut ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=stararmy:buildings:type_33_prefab_outpost:quonset_hut)) that she, her crew and a thousand or so others were in. Above her, the convex walls of the outpost module were made of recycled starship hulls. Though they were seamlessly integrated into one another, she still wondered if she would be able to see a distinctive piece of the original YSS Kaiyō. Her amber eyes searched before a tug at her jacket’s hem prompted her to look down at the tugger, Taiyou Hoshi.
Hoshi eyes prompted Eden to look back to the line of Nekovalkyrja Type 33 Eihei and 33A on an elevated stage before her. They were situated in the front row of a group of a thousand Rikugun and Third Fleet soldiers detached to the Kuvexian front line with them. Taiyou Hoshi was among many captains assembled, listening to the briefing happening before them. The 200 centurions were all being briefed in waves amongst other large Qonset Huts by command leaders and there had been many briefings like this from the same command leaders, so Hoshi had offered to deliver the briefing herself to reprieve them. The Legion 777 ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=stararmy:units:legion_777)) Commander, Shôshô Uzume herself, had been slotted to give this briefing and the Kaiyō captain’s request had been denied. She listened intently now, hoping Eden would too.
The mission was strategic but straightforward; a lot of which was made possible by the Kaiyō crew’s independent operations in the area.
Intelligence reports showed that a number of Kuvexian corporations had recently moved a majority of their operations out of a sector’s core planets and into a nearby military sector. The ships of the Third Fleet would be creating a blockade around where the corporations had moved to while also taking their military base there. YSS Kaiyō II did have a good amount of ground missions behind it, so was being deployed as a ground force. False data had been given to the Kuvexians about an attack planned to be tomorrow, the 16th, so the majority of Kuvexian space forces in this area of their domain had been moved out of certain strategic locations- this military sector, the surrounding passageway of space, and a few others nearby that the Yamataian strike force would be deploying to take.
The sector they were striking had four main systems that formed a grid network. Once one went down, the other three would be easier to capture. This group would be one of others to whose objective would be to de-establish the system's whole network by neutralizing the orbital installations and defensive ground forces of one planet in order to sabotage the system's network.
Eden looked towards where Wulf was, hoping to shoot him a message about Penny being the messenger of that data, but she thought better of it. She knew finding the Neko they had given away to the enemy wasn’t a priority at the time and she only wanted to remind him of that when there was good news. As her gaze was scanning back up to the speaking Shôshô, she caught sight of Wyatt. Painfully aware that yesterday had been Saya’s due date, she had gone to see him. It was still hard for her to think of her own lost daughter and wife, but her resolve to be sure the missing crew weren’t loss forever like them steamed in her as she clenched her fists and looked ahead. She knew the mission to get them was only just out of their grasp, though, and that the duty to keep on with their barrage against the Kuvexians was all they could do until they knew the position of Saya, Aiko, and William. With renewed interest, she listened more intently to the Shôshô.
"And so centuries sixty nine, seventy, and seventy one will assault the final orbital platform while remaining Taii lead their troops in a direct assault on Planet Borlel's defensive hardpoints," Uzume said while a volumetric map animated the target world, its Kuvexian garrisons, and the Star Army's formations on their attack routes. She had a gentle voice that managed to deliver its message in very officious order, and wore an ankle-length pleated skirt with her 30C uniform that recalled her old samurai's hakama.
"One of the legion's Plumeria — the YSS Kusa, and her armor team — plus the YSS Kaiyō II's armor team are assigned to spearhead our planetary attack and strike these two relay installations while the bulk of our centuries secure related infrastructure and ground around them," the admiral continued while the map zoomed in on planet Borlel and their targets. She said no more for some time, then, until some of the soldiers assembled before her began to murmur.
"That is your mission," Uzume said at last, before any conversations could really take off. "Go, now, and ensure your centuries and crews are ready to launch within the hour."
1 Hour Later
Kuvexian Space
YSS Honne- Kagai class
Power Armor Launch Bay
The short section of space had been overtaken by the three centuries that the Kaiyō crew was a part of. The Kaiyō ship itself was operating with only some of its normal crew while most of its forces were aboard a Kaiga, ready to deploy via the rectangular doors in the launch bay. For now, they were closed as the Kagai moved through the sector, prowling near Planet Borlel, its destination.
Eden tapped her knuckles together as she walked from the ready armory with Rei, passing other units of powered armor warriors prepping within the huge launch bay. There were 100 other power armors here beisdes her own, a joyful sight for lonely eyes such as hers.
“You really should try going without a handheld,” she said to the samurai, clad in her own Sarah M7. The second officer, Eden, was in her Mindy but had only the shoulder aetheric pulse cannons and nodal support bits as leg mounted mini missiles as weaponry. Otherwise, she had a leader support pack on her chest and standard Mindy 4 bits and bobs.
Rei was steadfastly silent as she walked, before she took a position near Gravity and spoke.
“I will retain my sword, Chusa,” Rei said, referring to the aether beam rifle of her Sarah M7.
Kiyo was silent as she listened to the briefing, no word of locating Saya, William, and Aiko, which pissed her off. She knew her duty, and she knew things would be fine; she can take her anger out on some Kuvexians no problems. She hoped they got lucky and found the location on their teammates, maybe they will find that in this mission. During the briefing she gently clutched Wulf’s hand in her own as she listened, her face expressionless as she kept herself calm as much as she could.
Hours later, she was in her Mindy, with her personal standard armament, and her aether katana, Silverlight, as well her aether blaster saber in both hands. “Chusa, I also wish to retain my swords, besides my personal standard armament.” She replied, though realizing since she hadn’t been spoken to, she might get into trouble for speaking out of turn.
Valkyr sat on top of the Power armor bay, as the havoc drake waited for action. She chirped as if to say that she was ready to kill too.
Kikios would be taking her usual (unusual) Mindy loadout with Kalamari arms, NSBs, a missile pod, scalar machine gun, and Saber-Rifle. Though she'd taken this loadout a few times before, she hadn't actually gotten to test it that much since she wasn't in real combat that often.
Ever the social butterfly, Gravity had managed to break through the cultural barriers that separated the navy from the ground-pounders during their short time together. As a result, the nice infantry neko had loaned her some of their warpaint. As she inspected herself on her communicator's selfie-cam, she had to admit that while she'd never really been a makeup girl, she really loved the two navy-blue stripes leading from the bottom of her eyelids to mid-cheek.
She could get used to this. As Nepleslian death metal softly played from her speaker, Gravity took a moment to inspect what she dubbed her "stealth build". A 50mm gauss cannon, with back-mounted extended magazine. An aether machine gun on the other shoulder, and mini-missiles on both legs. Starlight, meanwhile, stayed behind. No use taking him into an armor fight.
Eden gave a short burst of laughter at Kiyo's request, "Don't worry, Weeyico-hei. I know it's a matter of personal preference. Keep your swords and I'll keep my arms, though neither is match for warpaint like Gravity's."
Narumi had a very standard loadout for her Mindy with mini-missiles, nodal bits, and a coherent aether weapon. The last bit a popular weapon with the Giretsu. And also like a Giretsu, she didn't really have much to say, instead focusing on the task at hand.
The faceplate of Wyatt's TARSA was currently open, resting steadfast on his forehead and exposing the Operative's unshaven face, casting oppressive shadows down over the Minkan's usually bright eyes. He... was going through a lot, understandably, but wouldn't be able to call himself SAINT if he wasn't able to push his emotions and personal biases back into their bottle.
So instead his mind was focused solely on the mission and ensuring his gear was good to go, the man's sleek suit of dark-blue armour currently being kitted out for the overwatch role he'd be providing. The coppery, clearly affected man had saved this particular loadout under the name "Displacer", a creature from Saya's much beloved tabletop game.
He watched the other mill around, AHAMR rifle slung across one shoulder with a LATR currently resting in the crook of his arms, finding a little solace in the fact some of the others were able to maintain high spirits at least before the Minkan sealed his helmet's face plate.
Having caught sight of the stubbled and shadowed face of their SAINT operative, Eden quipped, "Next time, Gravity, share that warpaint, would you? You're not the only-" as Eden was speaking, the KAMI of the ship spoke over the ship's comms.
"Condition One," the KAMI reported to the launch bay. "Prepare to deploy."
As the launch bay's doors rose, replaced with only a force field between the armors and the blue and green world below them. It was ringed with hazy blue and white layers of the atmosphere on the peripherals of their vision, which became obfuscated as the Kami class shuddered through the exosphere. Within several seconds of anticipation and wait in the bay, the Kagai reached its destination, the stratosphere.
The grouping of Nekovalkyrja in armors nearest the large rectangular doors ballooned up and then down, beyond view as they launched. The next line of power armored soldiers unmoored themselves and moved out, quickly dropping into the layers of atmosphere hugging the planet below. Next up to launch were the row the Kaiyō crew were within.
"Yamatai Banzai!!!" Narumi screamed out as she was launched to bring death to those below.
The team's half-Elven Minkan would simply step out of the ship when it was his turn to drop, arching his back and letting gravity tumble his armour into the correct orientation before moving along his assigned flight path.
Kiyo stepped into place as Narumi screamed, not wanting to be outdone, she also shouted. “Come and die Kuvexians!” She shouted as she jumped out of the ship and headed down hard and fast towards the planet.
Wincing slightly beneath his helmet and sensing there would be more yelling Wyatt momentarily dialled down the volume of the team's comms system a few notches.
Yells of the excitement before battle clung behind them as they descended fast and far from the ship. The cloud layer that seemed far flung in its pillowy depth was soon being broken through by the armors in front of them, swallowing them from sight, before Eden and the line of armors were through and past it, too.
"Engaging enemy vessels!" came a quick reply from a group lower than them.
Below them, their route was clearly marked through a pass between snow-clad mountain, but the Kuvexians had employed the time between the alerts of the approaching vessels and now to deploy their own defensive measures. Small and large gunships skittered through the path that the armors were taking. Other enemy ships appeared within visual range around the nearby enemy base- the Yamataian's destination.
There were a few dozen in total, one of which suddenly burst into flame and careened out of the sky and in the path of Eden and some of those around her, forcing her to teleport quickly in front of the ship to avoid being knocked down and out of the air. The Chusa was still flying forward towards the base, but with the enemy's ground forces surprising stock of gunships they had no doubt shaken out of storage, she wasn't sure their entrance to the base would be as simple as the front door.
"Gekichin!" came another voice over comms, establishing an attacked starship had been sunk.
"Lucky shot!" came a sharp reply.
Eden shot into her team's comms, "Create a doorway! Take out as many ships as you can!"
A large cyan beam of aether energy sang out from Narumi as she fired her coherent aether rifle. In short controlled bursts, she focused on an incoming gunship that dared declare its intention to target her.
Swapping to his other rifle Wyatt began slowly and methodically unloading his AHAMR into the engines and missile pods of approaching gunships whenever the opportunity arose, sending slug after caustic slug screaming out his rifle's barrel at supersonic speeds.
Though Wyatt's slugs needed to pierce before delivering payloads, his repeated shots into a gunship trying to close the distance between the base and the descending waves of infantry Nekovalkyrja destabilized the ship enough for its missile bays to ignite in a small plume of fire that ate at the shredded hull before the gunship's own payloads blossomed in a glowing explosion that inflated outwards.
The end result was likely a bitter fall to the snowy precipice below like the ship that had fallen before it, but the team was moving past that ship as well as the one that had targeted Narumi and not taken any outwardly apparent damage from her.
Anti-Mecha power mode not putting a dent in the ships, Narumi opts to just focus on dodging weapons fire instead. She holsters the weapon on her shoulder and continues the fall down.
Gravity corkscrewed around Wyatt like a bird. She hadn't ever really been a part of a large scale PA battle, but she had to say that so far this was pretty easy. This was just like a normal space battle, except now she was in a nimble little armor instead of a three hundred meter gunship. Her shoulder-mounted machine gun tracked an incoming armor and lit it up at the same time that her 50mm gauss cannon began dialing in on the powerplant of the next ship in line.
"Oops." she muttered.
“Hai” was the only response Eden would get from the Azure Sword Kat as the Neko came down. She saw her comrades even her sister acting spectacularly. She gripped her Silverlight tightly, activating its secondary mode as she came down soon bringing herself at Gravity’s side. “Excellent work sis!” she said before she went on the attack as she got an idea and aimed for the cockpit of the nearest enemy gunship she saw.
Eden's voice splashed in over comms, "Target sensitive areas of their gunships, like engines!" The kinetic energy damage from Gravity's four foot gauss cannon had penetrated the reactive engine of the enemy vessel.
"Same goes for you, Yoshinaga-hei!" Eden said, shifting her focus to Narumi.
She directed the clerk's and her team's attention to a comoliment of armors ((https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=faction:kuvexia:military:roles:infantry)) that had deployed out of a gunship. It had been an emergency ejection as the ship plummeted into the white and rocky precipice below. Waves of compact snow arched away from the ship, obscuring some of them from view, though the ship had fallen precariously close to their path and now they faced an imminent wall of about forty armors about to ascend.
"Thirty plus hostiles at twelve o'clock low!" Warned Gravity, who opened up on the mass with a combo of machine gun fire and mini missiles before they could gain momentum.
"I see them. They are going to be 30+ dead Kuvexians soon." Narumi said as she went to take hold of her coherent rifle and made her suit ready for evasive maneuvering. Once the weapon was fully hot a few seconds later, she let loose controlled bursts of full powered cyan aether at the golden swarm. She relied on her training back at SAIC to keep her mind, body breathing controlled enough to minimize shots hitting non-vital areas.
Pausing in her pitch forward in her Srah M7, Rei’s raised her forearm. After the aether projector pitched out of her armor, the energy submachine gun began firing at the armors that plumed above the soft churning of snow and ship. The combined shots of her and her comrades near her caught a handful of armors, sending four tumbling back downwards.
Initially, the enemy armors were being piloted to elevate and avoid being swallowed by snow and wreckage, but soon they were negotiating the uncertain battlefield. A few jutted out and away from the Kaiyō team, launching themselves towards the Rikugun soldiers nearer the base as they engaged the gunships there, while half of the initial group turned their attention more towards the approaching groups, including Eden’s team. Some of the armors aimed their own weaponry while others worked to close the distance between them and the groups onslaughting their base.
Narumi continued with her controlled shots at the advancing Kuvexians. She narrowed her profile as much as possible and focused on any trying to flank a teammate.
Kiyo nodded ’hai” she replied as she turned her attack on the gunship’s engines before she spotted the arrival of the enemy power armor. She charged at one, all the while preparing her attack upon them.
"Don't get greedy, Kiyo! We still have plenty of help." Advised the elder sister, referring to the remaining waves of friendlies still streaming in from the rear. With only about 20 armors actively opposing them, it would make sense to allow their superior numbers to do most of the heavy lifting. Staying high, Gravity began laying down a wall of suppressing fire, using her shoulder-mounted MG to autotarget the armors in the back while using the rifle in her hands to keep baddies away from Kiyo.
"Gravity's right," Eden called out. Her momentum hadn't yet dropped as she launched through the cluster of armors.
When she saw a duo of armors approaching, Rei took up a profile like Narumi's to avoid the energy melee weapon one held.. Then, with an armored boot and thrust, the samurai kicked at one armor, pushing it into the other at the right second. Her capacitor whirred as energy built up for a more powerful short range burst at the disoriented pair. She looked to Eden, following her own path away from the advancing armors and towards the six gunships that remained. The gunships weaponry seemed to be next to useless as were the shielding, but Eden called out the real threat.
"Armor troops deploying from two more vessels!" As she said it, racks of armors dropped out of the bottom of two ships and within a second, the first groups of them were being let loose on the battle stage. It looked like the last ship had lost a large fraction of its compliment as each ship had at least a hundred armored soldiers release from the ships. "Target remaining gunship's missile bays." Eden said, remembering how Wyatt had decimated a gunship early on by doing so. Damaging the ship's engines isn't enough, ensure complete vessel destruction before more enemy armors can join the battle!"
"Roger! Firing!" Gravity affirmed and rocketed off, moving away from the main fray to better line up shots with the 50mm on the missile bay of one of the remaining vessels. One of the squids tried to get cute and impale her from behind with his blade. She grabbed the enemy armor by the wrist and with her free hand jammed her weapon up under its chin. After holding down the trigger for a good few seconds, she casually tossed it away like trash and resumed her objective. "Enemy armor Alpha Mike Foxtrot."
Eden gave a quick laugh at Gravity's parting words to her enemy, but the missile bay remained intact. What's more, the time before the four gunships released their payload onto the battlefield was likely diminishing.
Kiki surmised she would have a good chance of hitting a missile if she used her aether beam saber-rifle's beam setting to sweep across the missile bays, unless they were protected it would likely set them off easily. Using her Saber-Rifle's beam mode she allowed the beam to blast by and carefully drift across the missile bay of a gunship for three seconds, before switching targets and repeating the process for two other gunships. Due to her weapon's limitations she needed to give it a moment before she could fire it again after that, but hopefully at least one of the missile bays would detonate.
The first target Kikios had set her sights on was a formidable kill. The ship had likely diverted power to their insubstantial shields. The time it took to puncture them delayed the inevitable: the aetheric energy seeped into the volatile weapons compartments, causing a brilliant fireball that was surrounded by the crackling black web of blown up hull and ship alike.
With how hazardous the battlefield was at the current moment, it made sense that not all of Kikios' three targets were struck and detonated. An armor advanced unwittingly into her line of fire and caught her saber-rifle's beam. The armor's shields were ripped to shreds and the passing beam took off their armor's arm and a portion of their hip. Eden swiveled to deal a final blow with her shoulder's aetheric pulse cannons.
Teien Eden's gaze followed to Kikio's final target and noticed the gunship the engineer had targeted had been beginning to lower its grouping of power armors when its missiles bay nearest Kikio's erupted in a small explosion, shattering the ship.In the next moment, a larger explosion plumed to engulf the whole of the ship, armors included.
The second officer diverted her gaze to the remaining gunships to see that those that were not destroyed had successfully deployed their cache of soldiers. The battlefield was abuzz with the swarm-like activity of Yamataian against Kuvexian armors, engaging in melee and long range fire. Eden's own breastplate was knicked as she took stock.
"Kusa armor team!" Eden flung into comms, "Moving to infiltrate enemy base!"
"Roger Kaiyō team leader," came a snappy reply as Eden relayed the order to move in to the enemy stronghold at the woody base of the snow laden valley. A maelstorm of activity lay between them and it. Shots of all calibers between enemy and ally alike created deadly obstacles and there was no clear path of safety within the valley's battle heavy sky. Even few sparse ground troops had begun engaging one another below.
Eden streamed forward, tracking what she could see and avoiding it while letting her intuition guide her passage. Shots darted, some aimed at her and her team members alike. As she moved further into the fray, a kinetic shot pushed her off her course and the Nekovalkyrja was pushed into the hull of a gunship she had been flying near. Around her right fist, her armor's solid volumetrics hardened into a sturdy blade that she plunged into the ship, slowing her skidding to a stop. She pushed a leg up and thrusted from the gunship, facing it as she jettisoned a missile from her leg mounts, watching it tear through the small hole she had struck into it- one that became a ghastlier, bigger hole of shrapnel. She didn't have the opportunity to complete the downing of the vessel as she turned away, flying towards the base and out of lines of fire once more.
Kiyo heard her sister’s words in her earpiece, and then the confirmation from Eden, that confused her at being thought to be greedy, but they were right, there were a lot of soldiers on their side who can be of help, she needn’t try to take as many soldiers as she wanted but she did want to release her anger. “Sis, your amazing” she commented as she saw her sister attack their enemies as she too went for the attack, not wanting to be outdone by her sister, who she admired.
The finely-calibrated propulsion systems of Wyatt's TARSA continued to make corrections for him as the ginger-haired black panel kept on descending with the team, small bits of shrapnel bending and distorting as they bounced off his suit's unseen hard-light shield. The Operative saw Eden's work and seized the opportunity to finish what the higher-ranking Neko had been unable to, twisting his body in the air to momentarily slow his own fall and take a shot at the compromised armor plating.
"Chusa, I spy a ridge off to the east slightly that looks like it has potential. Do you have anything against me setting up there, when we touch down, to keep the enemies pinned down?" Wyatt's cold, blunt voice echoed through the shared comms system.
