RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 26 pt. II: Setsubun

[Ametheliana]

((OOC: Setsubun is the time of transition from a tough winter to see the coming of spring.))

Kessica Prime
Planet Surface
Southern Battle Fortifications

Though the joint soldiers of Yamataian, Uesureyan, and Nepleslian forces had taken the first outpost outside of their beech head, it had been by surprise. The Mishhuvurthyar in the Southern Frontier had proven themselves even in their failure to be a formidable enemy in both the losses they had caused but also in the startling advancements in the forms they could take.

As the commanding officer of the attack, Taiyou Hoshi felt the immense weight of the future on her shoulders. This had suddenly gone beyond helping Uesureya. If these newer, more enhanced forms of Mishhuvurthyar were not crushed, what if they seeped into her Kikyo Sector? Allowing them to keep Kessica meant it could happen. The system was a strong gateway between the Southern frontier and beyond. Possibly to their home.

What was worse, scouts had noticed a huge number of enemy forces were on standby at the Southern tip's city of Redan.

They outnumbered the task force's numbers almost two to one.

Even with reinforcements from the legion, the enemy had the advantage in numbers. They were also bolstered by the strange new Mishhuvurthyar types as well as the Nightmare that Aiko's retinue had encountered. Not only that, the southern city of Redan had its own starship field, meaning it wouldn't only be a ground operation this time.

In the two days after they had first arrived in the Northern tundra of Kessica, Hoshi had ordered the troops to spread out. In equal batches of abut five thousand they had advanced and flown to the two towns and two outposts south of their position that stood between them and the fortified city. If they could take Redan, it would be like taking Kyoto in Yamatai. They would have the planet. But between them and Redan were those four installations.

This part of the continent was more hospitable than the Northern reaches. Its lush and verdant landscape was marred only by the holdings the Mishhuvurthyar had taken and slathered with their grime and flesh-centric aesthetics. Even in the twilight hour before daybreak, huge swathes of bouncy pale clouds bounded towards the horizon. The joint forces found themselves under the breaking of the starry canopy as they roused, waiting for the signal from the rest of the units.

Against the far outpost to the West was where Captain William Sander's Nepleslian Berserkers lay in wait alongside the thousands of Yamataian and Uesureyan Nekovalkyrja, many of which would be fleeing the outpost at the signal. For now, though, they were as good as bait for the enemy. Within the town to its East, a contingent of the same numbers waited alongside Captain Hoshi and Ketsurui Aiko. Their backs were to a lake as they fortified against the town.

When the 282's forces had been spread out between the four sites, the enemy had dispersed their forces to each location in turn. The two towns and two outposts had been garrisoned and their full spread of forces had been sent out to each one. At them, about 9,000 enemy soldiers had set up to attack the 5,000 at each from the task force.

The odds were not on Emperor Uesu's side on the eve of the battle for Kessica. But, at the very least, the crew of the Kaiyō was.

 

[raz]

Kessica Prime
North of Redan
Kohan Town

In the reprehensible tongue of the Mishhuvurthyar this place's name was unknown. But the joint Yamataian-Uesureyan Task Force's intelligence analysts and operational planners had labeled it simply Kohan-chō — the lakeside town — in the Yamataian language, plainly owing to its placement near a small lake that, along with the river that fed it, cut through this region of Kessica Prime's mid-continental birch woodlands. Green and yellow leaves shaded where the Star Army and their allies had set up another hasty campaign camp and cast the fading moonlight down upon them in dusty shafts of pale glow. Here was a pretty spot, a place where the Star Armies had chased the Mishhuvurthyar back toward their so-called urban centers that were once quaint monuments to Uesureyan colonial ingenuity, now only profaned by the archenemy's foul taint.

Ketsurui Aiko stood alongside a group of loitering legionary in her Shibui Powered Suit, a favored undergarment she was afforded the privilege of wearing due to having been part of its initial testing batch, and made casual conversation with them as soldiers often did while they nervously awaited the order to fight. Even now, and though the princess Aiko had often made peacetime trips to visit with these troops, she stood tall and mindful of her expected grace with one hand held balled at the small of her back while the other charmingly provided accompaniment to the words she spoke to the more relaxed and slouched soldiers in their half-donned Mindy 4 power armors. They spoke little of the battle that had occurred two days prior beyond proud wartime declarations of how they were going to show ol' squiddy the way Yamataians fought, and Aiko focused more on small talk about hobbies and home and the other things her fellow Nekovalkyrja would tell her about had today fallen upon any other royal review weekend on Nataria.

Nonetheless, all the princess could think about was the coming brawl. Just as she was sure her Rikugun comrades and their samurai officers did, for anything else would fail them as warriors. Aiko wondered about William and his Berserkers, too, and how they'd fare. With any luck, Hoshi's plan would come together accordingly and she'd fight back-to-back with him and Rei and Mao and Hoshi soon enough. Some inklings of concern gnawed at her after the menacing Nightmare encounter, though, and she did her best to not banish them but master the beast's specter in her mind. It was all she could do if she expected to master it the next time they met in combat.

"Luck is for immortal SAINT ghosts," Aiko replied to one of the Rikugun Neko who had wished her good fortune, referring to a SAINT squad these soldiers would never know about. "You are Rikugun hohei, and we will defeat them like we did the other day. Like we did in '34. And then this planet will be ours. Ryoukai?"

"Ryoukai-desu!" the legionary enthusiastically confirmed in an eager chorus.

With that, Aiko gave them a snarling warrior's smile that showed off her Nekovalkyrja fangs and turned away. Her Kirie Thought Armor, Ryuketsu, knelt under a wide clearing bathed in moonglow beside the POM hut where Hoshi and other command staff were gathered. She would make her way toward it, as ready to launch now as she'd ever be, intending to spend some time with her trusted mecha before their attack.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost

The fighting men of the Berserkers were just as rowdy as ever. The fact that they were acting as bait did little to damper their mood either. Each group sharing stories of their previous battle, ribbing each other over kill counts and mistakes made in the field.

William stood out amongest his soldiers, watching the merriment as he awaited the signal.

"Ready to kick some ass boss?" Yuri asked stepping up to his side.

Dmitri sideled up to the pair of officers. "Of course he is. He is a Sanders after all."

William side eyed the pair. "We will do our job, just as we've been ordered to. We are Berserkers after all. We do the job others are too weak to do." Their CO explained. As he spoke the men all quieted down and looked to the captain. "These squid made a mistake when they thought they could go toe to toe with us. I say we educate them the only way we know how. With shock and awe!" At this the men roared in approval.

The captain smirked as everyone cheared. "Berserkers, suit up! We have mishu to kill!" The massive group of ID-SOLs broke apart, moving to dawn their Cyclops power armor.

"Nice speech, boss man." Dmitri said as the trio moved to suit up as well.

 

[Ametheliana]

Kessica Prime
Outside of Kohan Town

Hoshi was with the force hitting the central town before Redan. She was again in a Communications POM hut. A newly created jamming device took up more room than the usual systems and had been assembled by a team of red panels from SAINT. It was huge and bulky sitting next to the CJS jamming system, which only hampered transmissions and communications. This new jammer hampered more than that- it stopped teleportation systems from arriving near the jammer. It also made it hard to work in the small hut, surrounded by other officers and the sounds of them working.

The pink captain stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. She glanced at Aiko's armor and the tall woman approaching it. The near full moon lit the ground and equipment with a waning intensity, but it was setting and surely the dawn would come. Hoshi breathed in deeply before sighing out. The puff of air was like a miniature cloud swept away on the breeze.

"We should be sending the signal in the next few minutes," Hoshi said to the night air as much as she said it to Aiko.

"We'll advance on the town to make space for those teleporting in. When thousands from the outposts and other town come here, it will mean that almost our entire force of twenty thousand will fight here against half those numbers. The harassing units like William's unit will be able to tell us if the jammers don't work or they know of our gamble, somehow, and we can't take them by surprise numbers here at Kohan."

"If that happens, as your captain, I have orders. I want you to teleport to the ship and provide offensive air strikes." The captain knew it would be a hard sell to have Aiko buy her bid for self-preservation over leading her legionary kin into battle. The Taisa's words were more omens than orders as she feared for the worst outcome of her plan.

Plus the captain had a rite of habit to warn Yui's daughter to avoid danger if at all possible.

Outskirts of the Western Outpost

The military outpost they were edging up against hadn't seen much use for a long time. Before this week it had been home to a hundred or so NMX soldiers as they lived a peaceful life in the lakes and mountains while fabricating starship parts and shipping them out to the city below. After the Berserkers and Uesureyans had fortified their own prefab outpost, though, thousands of all types of Mishhuvurthyar and NMX Nekovalkyrja had pooled in from the city of Redan below.

William knew that the full 9,000 enemies here didn't need to be conquered, just distracted long enough. Many of the Uesureyan and Yamataians alongside him would be teleporting to the town of Kohan to be taken. A dedicated force of Grenadiers from the legion, outfitted in Keiko that didn't have teleportation abilities, looked towards his roused troops. It was hard to tell if it was unease or if they just didn't know whether they should join in or not.

Amongst those Neko that suited up stiffly was a sight familiar to William: the red and white clothes of a samurai and her Sarah mech (which the Kaiyo had always carried for Rei). Her hair was in style not unlike Rei's, just toned a verdant color that a Nepleslian would no doubt find familiar. He knew she was the commander of the unit that would be staying to fight alongside him, Taii Asami.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost

As everyone prepared, William and his core unit finished suiting up. He had his Kaiyo sword equipped this time, with two axes strapped to his back. He turned back to watch everyone suiting up, when he noticed Taii Asami watching him.

He waded through the see of soldiers until he stood infront of the samurai. "Ready, Taii?" The Berserker captain asked, turning to observe the Yamatain and Uesureyan troops who were also getting ready.

 

[raz]

Kessica Prime
Outside of Kohan Town

"Redan will be taken in time to have breakfast afterward, Captain," Aiko said in a way that would sound like cocky false confidence were it spoken in any other soldier's voice. She was knelt down beside her Kirie while she inspected the hardpoint on its left leg and then stood, satisfied with what she'd checked. "Your contingency orders are nonetheless acknowledged, though I do not believe the operation will come to a retreat for us. The enemy is devious but they rely on troops without Yamataian resolve or any cause save for our destruction. They will not calculate your plans."

With her hands planted on her hips, Aiko gave her oversized power armor's silver-white curves and scarlet lightning bolt livery a lengthy once over and then turned to Hoshi. The princess was glad her captain (who as far as Aiko knew was much more accustomed to bridge duty than the savage infantry combat they'd experienced two days prior) was well-healed after that first fight and ready to lead on the ground again. The magic of Star Army medical technology was mighty, but so was the warrior's spirit that lay within every Nekovalkyrja and it heartened Aiko's own sense of purpose to finally have Hoshi with her in the thick of battle in ways she hadn't been during the Kuvexian War.

"I had expected Asami's platoon to be with me again," Aiko said to Hoshi, making small talk as they waited to initiate operations almost in the same way she did with the legionary minutes before. "Still, I am pleased you sent them to watch over William for this. Members of the 777th will serve me well whichever unit they come from, but it is a great comfort that the ones who helped keep me alive against the Nightmare are with him. And we still have Usada-taii and her Uesureyans to follow us today. Have you seen them yet?"

 

[Ametheliana]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost

"The Ketsurui samurai William," Asami seemed as interested in William as he was in her as she made a quip at his name. "You are Ketsurui, no? Raised by the samurai and sworn to protect its royalty? Your livery is strange, though, for one of the clan. Here, you will need this," Asami trotted over to William and placed a jade pendant attached to a red string in his palm. Its held an uncanny familiarity to him. Though cruder than that which donned Aiko's katana, it was a carved dragon in the same posing and style as the princess' own gold one, though it was a cloudy light green instead.

"If your brothers want some, it'll cost them," Asami said after a laugh that emanated from the top of her mouth. She held up a round pendant from her torso. "See? Luck be upon you, samurai!"

It was then Hoshi's transmission came through. In the thousands, armors began teleporting from the outskirts of the outpost while at the same time the troops prepared to fight at William's command.

Outside of Kohan Town

"You're right to find comfort in Asami's positioning. William has a difficult task in front of him, she'll protect him," Hoshi said grimly. The Yamataian-born man was integral to the Kaiyō, but the force he commanded were harassers, though and through. Their utility would be wasted in the slaughter prepared for Kohan. Distracting and harassing the Mishhuvurthyar elements from closing in on Kohan or doubling back to Redan was imperative for Taiyou Hoshi's plan to work.

"Usada-Taii was in the town on the Eastern coast," Hoshi said. "But she will arrive on the signal."

"Still, you have protectors of your own," Hoshi said. The captain had noticed movement near the Sarah armor near her own Mindy and guessed at the future occupant. They were under the bouncy pink and red clouds as they stretched towards the horizon where the sunrise was looking imminent. Further from the horizon, stars still twinkled overhead as if the night were not done with its preparations for the battle to come.

"I haven't been on the ground like this in years, so thank you for your confidence. For once I am not just laying the plans but sowing them, too." Hoshi said, thoughts paralleling Aiko's at one moment only to tangent the next. "The nature of my battles became so banal and yet I didn't even realize it. I didn't even fight it."

She thought to say more. More about what she would have done differently tied in with a regret that she had let Aiko get captured while she sat on her bridge. But the words wouldn't come before the time for battle had passed and she bit back the confusing thoughts with a promise, instead.

"I'll be by your side for many more to come, Karasu-hime!"

Her volumetrics faded and she was naked as the day she was made. Hoshi pulled her blue and white hair over one shoulder and draped it over her pink collarbone and chest as she floated herself up and into the legs of her Mindy and pulled on the shell of the torso.

When she was in, she had sent out comm alerts: the signal to those in the outposts and towns to teleport here and prepare for their ally numbers to reduce. She floated upwards, away from the Princess to allow for what came next to not pierce her ears. Her armor began to blare the sound of a conch being blown. It was the trumpeting war horn being sounded for all in the vicinity outside of Kohan to hear to know that it was time to attack.

 

[raz]

Kessica Prime
Outside of Kohan Town

When Hoshi bounded nude into her Mindy 4, the Princess Aiko moved to suit up in her Kirie Thought Armor, too, pressing against an unmarked panel on its torso that motivated the mecha to split open at its waist and let her climb into its Type 33 Pilot Pod. By the time Hoshi was airborne and sounding her signal to the troops, Aiko's armor was closing around her just in time for her to hear the conch call from outside creep through with the last bit of fresh air before the Kirie sealed shut around her. Darkness enveloped her for only a split second as its Immersion System booted up and integrated with Aiko's senses, allowing her uninterrupted witness to the spectacle of Legion 777's disciplined scramble toward their next combat engagement.

Nearby, Aiko's protectors (as Hoshi had called them, though the princess felt them more akin to fighting attendants than anything else) had donned their own Sarah M7 power armors. Usually, these choice technological relics — yet still advanced for their age — were rarely seen by Star Army troops or their enemies anymore. But among the Natarian Grenadiers they were somewhat commonplace. Although every one of these suits among the Legion's inventory was marked for "ceremonial" duties, officially worn only during parade formations and other celebratory events, many of the Centurions in their ranks who'd earned the right to wear them in service as Ketsurui Samurai like Rei and Mao nonetheless used them on days like today.

Without hesitation, Aiko launched her Kirie off the dusty forest floor and into the sky past Hoshi. All of the companies and platoons here knew their routes and had begun moving toward Kohan Towan by land or air and, with her samurai to her flanks, the princess took up position near the force's vanguard like she always did. Beneath the blanket of reddened morning clouds, the attack force moved swiftly toward their objectives. From her place high up above the trees, Aiko could see her comrades darting deftly through trees while her mech's thrusters and those of the other airborne power armors left trails of vaporized daybreak dew in their heated wake.

"Do not stay back for too long, Hoshi-taisa," Aiko sent on a private channel directly to her captain. She usually would not fathom taunting Hoshi in such a way, but this type of battle was the princess' domain and, in William's absence, she had to share her fun with someone who wasn't a sworn protector or cohort of idolizing legionaries. "If you keep playing that song then you will miss everything important you had planned!"

Off ahead, Aiko could see commotion in Kohan Town. Its Mishhuvurthyar defenders knew the allied Star Armies were coming this time, and in her magnified scopes could make out the enemy's silhouetted preparations after they, too, had heard Hoshi's war horn echo through the air. They weren't shooting yet for whatever reason; Aiko did not know if they held their fire for lack of ammunition, for the benefit of some devious counter-ploy, or simply because these Mishhu and their NMX Nekovalkyrja thralls preferred to fight in close quarters. It mattered not.

Aiko readied her Kirie's shoulder mounted gauss cannons and pointed them toward to what looked like a line of defensive earthworks where enemy soldiers were hustling to adjust as the Yamataian forces closed in. Her targeting HUD quickly flashed green as it locked on to something the armor's CIES thought was worthwhile — perhaps an aether generator on some kind of big vehicle or a concentration of Rippers waiting to pounce — and then fired.

With those first shots loosed off at the Mishhu, the autoloaders that fed Aiko's gauss cannons cycled and reloaded them as the enemy battle line lit up with a massive fusillade in reply.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost

William chuckled as the pendant was attached to his sword. "No, I was never officially made a samurai." He explained. "Rei raised me, but I never took the oath to protect the royalty."

It was at that moment that the signal to attack was heard by everyone. As everyone began teleporting out, the Captain turned back toward his soldiers. "Well? You heard her, attack!" William ordered. A warcry came from every ID-SOL there, and they all began streaming out towards the enemy outpost.

The plan was for the Berserkers to split into two groups. The first, led by William, would hit the outpost head-on and draw the defenders' attention. At the same time, the second group would encircle the defenders and hit them from all sides.

"Let's get to work Asami!" William called back as he flew ahead to take his position with his forces. As the Berserkers approached the outpost, the 100 Cyclops armors of William's group began to open up with their weapons simultaneously. The Captain added his own railgun fire to the fusillade, the air quickly becoming saturated with deadly fire as the Berserkers closed in.

 

[Ametheliana]

Kessica Prime
Kohan Town

Behind their dirt mounds the soldiers being bombarded by the incoming attack from the legion dug into their defensive fortifications. The first rounds of fire onto the Yamatain's joint forces came from tanks and larger platforms that shot through the ramparts. The initial round was followed closely by the front-facing units shooting off their plasma and aether weaponry.


One of the weapon platforms within Kohan town exploded, its pieces and parts ripping through the dusky early morning in a blaze brighter than anything the sky held. Meanwhile, a platoon each advanced from the sides of the town, just in the peripherals of the attackers. The armored units sailed through the dim sky and battered into either side of the advancers.

Western Outpost

"Seem like a samurai to me," Asami said to herself out of the corner of her mouth. Soon she was in her armor, following the captain of Nepleslians with a warrior's rallying cry to the group behind her. They followed closely.

The scene laid out in front of the enemy was that of certain victory. Before the battle had even begun, most of the attacker's army had been transported away, likely too scared to fight them. Now, their numbers exceeded that of the attackers by the thousands. But the Berserkers and their legionary compliment were besieging them with a terrifying zeal that they would put in a life or death bid to match.

Their units swelled from the outpost as if a tidal wave as those on the ground took to flight and those on the ground hung back. They met the advance with a deft first shot of airborne Reaper armors shooting their particle rifles on the frontliners. Ignoring the pincer movement for now, those on the ground loosed a smattering of gauss rifles and anti-armor missiles towards those charging them.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost

"Here they come! Shield wall!" William called out to his soldiers. The front line of soldiers equipped their forearm shields and stood side by side. The men behind them held their forearm shields over their heads. The men behind the first two lines began opening fire on the incoming missiles and took potshots at the flying Reapers. "We have their attention now! Fall back to position alpha!" The Nepleslian Captain ordered. His entire attacking force began sliding back across the ground, shields still raised as they defended from the incoming fire.

Once they were out of range of the outpost's defenses, William smirked. "Berserkers, engage!" His force dropped their shields and launched themselves into the air after the Reapers. William, too, joined in the carnage. His sword sliced through combatant after combatant as they fought.

While this was happening, the other half of his forces finished their surround of the enemy's outpost. At Commander Yuri's order, they began their attack as well. The 2nd group would quickly charge in, firing on targets of opportunity and retreating back out of range.

'We just need to hold out until the attack is done...' William thought as he fought on. 'I hope they finish up quick.'

 

[raz]

Kessica Prime
Outside of Kohan Town

When the Mishhuvurthyar began their counterattack, Aiko was still soaring over the battlefield in her Kirie while taking pot-shots at the defenders below as she went. With combat joined on the surface she and the other Mindy with her had been relatively free from return fire so far. Then she saw her immersive HUD light up with orange enemy contact indicators to both sides of the battlespace.

Swarms of Flayer Tankettes bumbled through the air to Kohan Town's flanks while outriding Battle Buggies supported charging NMX Neko from the ground in an attempt to halt the Yamataian advance. The enemy's use of scout vehicles here was a bold gamble on their part, which gave Aiko some measure of confidence that the Legion's assault was proceeding well — and assured her that the hardest fighting could still be yet to come. These groups aimed to rip into the Star Army forces now engaged with the Mishhuvurthyar's center lines and main defenders in the town itself, firing sidelong into Kohan while they wrapped around its sides.

"On me," Aiko said via a calm communication to the legionary flying in her proximity, already performing a turning roll though the early morning sky so her trajectory was aimed toward the flanking counterattackers coming from Kohan's right. And unable to be everywhere at once, she trusted that the other side would be taken care of by some other squad.

Aiko fired her Kirie's weapon systems more aggressively as she closed with the airborne tankettes while dozens of soldiers from Legion 777 followed her in formation and did the same. Those enemies would soon realize they'd been noticed as their comrades fell back to earth in wrecked fireballs, and by then Aiko and her legionary were upon them. Below, the Star Army infantry fighting on the ground had shifted some of their attention at the closing Battle Buggies and enemy Nekovalkyrja in Reaper power armors who were able to keep up. The wicked tusks on those Mishhu buggies aimed to break through and scatter their Star Army targets — and some did make it through, impaling a few unlucky Neko as they went — but most were targeted and stopped in short order, felled before they could cut wide swathes of gore through the Star Army ranks.

Having landed her Kirie atop a flying Flayer and lanced into its brain-slave compartment with a pink aetheric beam from her forearm weapons, Aiko kicked off of the toppling tankette as it tumbled inertly out of the sky. Now pointed at the forested outskirts of Kohan Town below, the princess switched the weapons attached to both arms over to sword mode and sped straight toward the surface. Before she made impact, Aiko adjusted her vector hard and sped along the ground with a wake of dust and dirt following her Kirie as it slashed through an oncoming Battle Buggy, bisecting both machine and their single Advanced-Type Mishhuvurthyar pilot with one stroke.

 

[Ametheliana]

Kessica Prime
Kohan Town

From behind, Hoshi could see the legionaries following the princess' red and white Kirie. As the Taisa took stock of those that had just teleported in, she noticed the pink weapons fire from her periphery to a side of the battle. The flanking Mishhuvurthyar-led units that had funneled from either side to them were being hacked away at the thousands of Mindy armors that had teleported in, along with Aiko.

"The major roadway in has been opened by Shosa Ketsurui's forces, continue to push through the opening there." Hoshi said to the units.Losing sight of Aiko's mecha as the falling pink weapon's fire was obscured by the trees made the pink captain's next command flow with confidence.

"Take them at their heart," Hoshi said on comms to many of the task force. "Reclaim what was once yours! Move into Kohan town with speed and force. This is not their last stand, block their attempts to fall back to Redan."

The NMX units of the town hadn't expected attackers with these numbers. What's more, their calls to the commanders of the armies at the other towns and outposts weren't responding or couldn't reroute their units quickly due to the jamming units the Star Army had set up.

The Flayer Tankettes that once existed in flocks had been targeted and slaughtered by those in Aiko's wake. Now those left were clumped in handfuls heading South like small families of gulls going to roost for the night.

Though Hoshi had asked to block the NMX from regrouping, the pace of the battle hadn't allowed for that. The task force hadn't time to entrench itself in the town before the enemy could sniff the unequivocal scent of their enemies permeating the air in numbers too large to take on. Though most of the forces were doubling back to Redan, within the Kohan town there were several outcroppings of defensively held buildings like the small shuttle port.

Hoshi pinged the princess and the legionaries nearest her to the central shuttle strip and its control tower.

Western Outpost

The dupe Hoshi had set for them had worked, but time was of the essence. Not all of the harassing units at other outposts and towns could keep holding the Mishhuvurthyar back forever. Redan laid South of them all, the capital of the planet and the key to holding it.

Hoshi called in to William, "Still alive? Need you to be!"

While the enemy was engrossed with firing on and beating back William's Berserkers, Yuri's group had the chance to take the outpost outright. William's group had taken the attention of the outpost's defenses while being under siege from within. The engaged Reapers couldn't fall back to defend the walls or the high spire of the fort behind the Berserkers had jumped them too far for even the outpost's defenses to help.

Nothing short of brilliant strategy, even Asami and the Nekovalkryja surrounding her started shouting in ecstatic unison as they saw on their HUDs how their comrades were within the walls of the outpost. Asami herself hadn't taken many shots, rather focused on organizing the troops and being sure everyone's morale was good. Not one for violence, she was more inclined towards finding utility in leadership. Learning from William, a samurai in all but oath, made her feel lucky enough to thank any kami spirits watching over her.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Kessica Prime
Outskirts of the Western Outpost
"Captain! Quit playing with your food, the outpost is ours!" Yuri called as his grouped killed the last of the defenders. William laughed as he sliced through another Reaper and fired off a salvo at another. "Well draw them in, taking out with their own defenses!" He ordered, breaking off from the melee and flying towards the outpost. "Berserkers! To the outpost!" He called, his soldiers following suit and following after him.

As they entered the outpost's defensive perimeter the pursuing Reapers were in for quite the shock as all the remaining defense platforms began opening fire on them. What followed was nothing less than total annihilation of the remaining defenders. By the time Hoshi had called, William, Yuri, and Dmitri were standing in the center of the outpost while the rest of the Berserkers performed mop up operations.

"Yeah Boss. Outpost is under Triple 7 control. Awaiting further orders." William replied as he and his cadre moved to stand with Asami. "Well, did you enjoy the show?" Dmitri asked.