RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 3.0] Pickets and Surveys

Eun-Kyung's aether blasts struck the shielding of the large vehicles, but a portion of the destructive energy still managed to penetrate. The energy lanced the outer armor of the vehicle she was facing.

It returned fire with a stream of high velocity projectiles from the cannon mounted on the forward section. The destructive force of the volley was stopped by the shields, which dropped in strength to 70%.

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The closest target for Arkase to fire upon was one of the turrets. Which had struck the front of the LUT just as he ordered everyone out of the vehicle. Smoke billowed from under the hood of the wounded vehicle which continued to roll forward on momentum.

His shots slammed into and through the shields of the turret. His volley nearly decapitated the turret as it burst into flames.

Even as the return fire was slamming into her forearm shield, Eun-Kyung cut the power to her CFS and let her armor plummet to the ground. She rode her secondary engines hard at the last second, just slowing her fall, before making a break for the nearest cover. Moving between what trees, rocks, and small rises she could find, she deactivated her left forearm shield to let it recharge while bring up her right. She also took the moment to check her tactical display.

“Yamamoto-Hei, what’s your status?” she called out on comms.

Glad that she hadn’t yet heard any reports of injury or worse, she switched her rifle to her left hand and worked out a new plan. She dashed forward and leapt into the air, using her CFS and secondary thrusters to launch her in an arc. At the apex, she twisted and fired on the vehicle again before beginning to fall to the ground.

Kyoka took a more ground-based approach when exiting the LUT. Abandoning the rifle she had while keeping hold of her Aether SMG and plasma shotgun, she dived from her seat in the bed of the truck off to the side in between blasts from the turrets. She immediately put the thrusters on her armor to work, using them to propel her across the ground quickly as she opened fire with the SMG on the vehicle Kim-Shoi had engaged. Concentrated fire tactics were thankfully one of the things she had learned back at the training academy. To avoid return fire, she began strafing while boosting herself in the air.

"Aye." Trowa acknowledged the order. Dropping to one knee, he sighted on the right-most vehicle with his assault rifle. He took a second to adjust his sights, then quickly marked his targets. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly and squeezed the trigger. HE fired several bursts first at the vehicle's tires, then at the cab, hoping to hit the driver.

After emptying half the clip, Trowa sprang up and ran to another position before firing again. He didn't want to stay in one place too long and make himself an easy target. He emptied the rest of the mag into the truck then quickly reloaded and switched to the plasma shotgun. Sprinting as close as he could get, Trowa fired twice at the truck with the heavy weapon then dove behind some cover to avoid any return fire. "Alive." Trowa responded. "Engaging right truck." He jumped up again, fired two more shots at the truck then sprinted towards the nearest cover.

Eun-Kyung's maneuver was too quick for the vehicle to get a lock on, though it did try a stream of projectiles flew a fraction of a meter behind her.

Her second assault broached the shields and slammed into the body of the vehicle renting a number of small holes in the chassis.

With the vehicle distracted by Eun-Kyung, Kyoka's assault tore into the front of the vehicle. A gash that ran across the entire front end was apparent and smoke and flames emerged from it.

The Vehicle stopped its movement, then a series of audible clanks and clunks could be heard. The rear turret swiveled and unleashed a storm of ram grenade type projectiles that peppered the area where Eun-Kyung landed. Then the rear half of the vehicle separated, and began to move away from the damaged front section.

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Trowa's first burst from his weapon impacted the shield with no visible effect, but his determination and heavy trigger finger finally broached the shields. His shots at the cockpit were eventually rewarded with holes in the windscreen. The vehicle started peppering his area with grenades.

Eun-Kyung dove for the deck, dragging herself into cover as the grenades detonated around her. The strange noises coming from the vehicle had her a bit worried, though, and so she dispatched a drone from her leg hanger and had it peak over the top of her cover. She swore loudly as the feed showed the vehicle separating and apparently resuming operation.

She turned herself over, checking on her right forearm shield projector and hefting her rifle. A glance at her tactical display showed it had been Kyoka who had joined her fire on the left vehicle. Switching back to the team-wide net, she opened her comm systems.

“Tsubei-Hei, switch your fire to the rear-half of the vehicle.”

Raised into a pose reminiscent of a sprinter’s starting position, Eun-Kyung closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she let the last of it out, she exploded out from behind cover, keeping her forearm shield between herself and the vehicle while harrying it with shots from her Saber-Rifle, now set to automatic fire. She knew she was a juicy target and hoped that Kyoka would take full advantage of her diversionary actions to put in some more lethal fire.

Arkase kept pushing toward the exit, making a zig-zag approach at his best speed while firing at the enemy around him; focusing most of it toward his goal. He didn't spend time aiming -- he waited for AIES to make a tone and pulled the trigger.

"Keep going!" He called to his assault team.

As Eun-Kyung made her diversionary assault slash dash, the vehicle changed its tactics. Instead of carpeting the area, it fired the grenades in tight clusters in closer proximity. Perhaps it was learning to deal with the speed of the power armor, or it was just getting luckier. Halfway to her intended cover, a burst went off next to her. Her forearm shield partially protecting the armor from the worst of it, but the concussion wave was enough to blow her sideways in a tumble.

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Arkase closed rapidly on what appeared to be the entrance to the complex. However, when he looked into the aperture, he saw two more of the vehicles sitting. And behind them what appeared to be a massive door set into the rear wall.

For the briefest of instants, Eun-Kyung panicked as she was blown out of control. Then, mercifully, some half-remembered instinct from training kicked in and she tucked into a ball, letting herself roll until skidding to a halt. Once again, she scrambled into cover, holding her position against the now far more deadly grenade fire.

She took a moment to breath deeply and try to quiet the blood pounding in her ears. A glance at her tactical display showed further positive progress. The Heisho appeared to have advanced to the brink of the enemy installation, but this brought a further frown of worry to her face. If the vehicles continued their operations they could form the hammer to the anvil of the installation, and crush the assault element between them.

She wasn’t an infantry officer; she really, really wasn’t. But there was nothing else for it. Unslinging one of the satchel charges she had brought from the Aeon, she checked on its detonator before charging up her CFS unit again. Her watchful drone continued to transmit data and she carefully noted the relative positions of the front and rear halves of the vehicle. After another moment spent outlining her plan to her armor’s AIES, she moved to ready herself. She gripped her rifle, but without any immediate intent of using it. So too were her shields inactive - the red status icons in her HUD showing they still hadn’t forgiven her for the abuse she had subjected them to.

“Good luck,” she muttered. Whether to herself or in general, she didn’t really know or care because at that moment, she leapt into the air. Instantly, the CFS power levels zoomed to maximum as the AIES took control. Her armor barreled forward at full speed, leaving Eun-Kyung a mere passenger as the AIES guided her on a desperate nap-of-the-earth path to deposit her, hopefully intact, in whatever cover the crippled front half of the hostile vehicle could provide.

Kyoka heard the order and responded promptly as she could, replacing her strafing strategy for a more steady aim inducing one, reducing her speed and taking careful consideration into her next volley. Once the target was set and Kim-shoi appeared to be recognized as its target, the Neko fired full throttle on that rear half, sparing nothing with that Aether SMG.

The rear part of the vehicle unleashed a barrage at the projectile that was Eun-Kyung. The blasts fortunately hitting behind her and her velocity was enough to keep her out of the blast radius. The barrage stopped once the vehicle no longer had LOS on her.

Kyoka's assault on the rear section of the vehicle had a spectacular effect as the bolts from her SMG tore into it. A massive fireball erupted from the vehicle as her shots hit the grenade magazine. Reducing the attack craft to a smoking hulk and bits of scrap metal that was falling from the sky.

Meanwhile Eun-Kyung after the explosion could here a whine building up from the front section that she was hiding against.

After Kyoka bailed, Kame noticed Asine-hei was in a daze. Just before the round hit, the engineer grabbed the Yamatai and bailed out doing a barrel-flip into the air. Landing with a thump, she caught up with Kyoka and gave the neko a hand signal saying, "Asine is dazed, but ok. Let continue with the mission." As the other neko fired, Kame set down her living parcel and pulled out her last smoke grenade. Responding to the Arkase, Kame said, “Acknowledged sir! Initiating barrage on my mark. One..." Then, Kame threw, long and far, the smoke grenade at whatever was firing at her officer.
"Two...." Pick up her parcel again in one hand and readied a regular grenade in the other.
"...Three, Mark!" The smoke grenade exploded as it landed. Kame quickly began running hoping that Arkase Heisho would lead the way and Kyoka would follow. She had not yet gotten ahead of the officer though. In the mean time, she looked for the next defensive structure that needed to be blocked along the line.

Eun-Kyung smiled as the refocused fire from Kyoka obliterated the still active half of the vehicle. Now in cover, she was realizing how the next part of her initial plan, to charge the rear half from her current position of cover, would have been quite hazardous, to say the least. She was more than happy to have had someone else eliminate that problem.

Now there was only her putative cover left, and the whining her audio sensors were picking up was suggesting an extra measure of urgency might be in order for dispatching it. She unlimbered the satchel charge she had checked before and wedged it against the vehicle as tight as she could. Sparing a brief second to check the detonator, she sped off again, waiting until she had left the immediate blast zone to trigger the eight blocks of T31PE in the package.

The Nepleslian cursed several times in his native language. Those bloody grenades were getting closer and he was running out of places to take cover behind. He was having trouble staying out of the line of the launcher's fire. That launcher could rotate everywhere except for... But that was crazy. Trowa smiled. That was worthy of a Nepleslian!

Taking back up his assault rifle, Trowa fired several bursts at the launcher itself, hoping to to destroy it or at least slow it down. He sprinted in a zig zag pattern to throw off its aim and made a mad dash for the vehicle. He switched his fire to the cockpit and unloaded the remainder of the clip into it. Without breaking stride, he reloaded and grabbed onto the truck itself, near the cockpit. He let the assault rifle dangle by the sling and with one hand unslung the plasma shotgun. He blasted the door handle then gave it a hard kick. After getting a better hold on the truck, Trowa stuck the shotgun into the cap and fired at where he believed the driver was then stuck his head in to look.

Asine had been busy analyzing the data coming in when Kame yanked him from the vehicle. As she pulled him to cover, he oriented his armor, "I'm good, thanks for having my back." he said as he streaked after Arkase. He had is left arm shield deployed while firing his Light Armor Service Rifle at the closest turret to cover their flank. Once the turret was smoking he closed on Arkase's point and landed to the left of him.

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The Satchel charge with its shape charge detonated when Eun-Kyung hit the detonator as expected. The force was so strong that it tore the disabled forward section into three large pieces and launched them into the air to land 50-100 meters away from their starting position.

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With the shields down on the assault vehicle, the grenade launcher was vulnerable to Trowa's rifle. When he fired the Type 30 ACP into the inner compartment, there were two explosions. The first was the cartridge that he fired, the second one was a fraction of a second later, and was the volatile material inside the vehicle detonating. Smoke poured out of the vehicle, and several panels in the side and top of the vehicle were blown out by the combined forces.

“Good effect on target,” muttered Eun-Kyung bemusedly as the rest of the vehicle was annihilated, quite as impressively as she might have hoped. She was a little shocked that she had come through that particular engagement in one piece, power armor or no. Closing her eyes for a moment, she wished she was back aboard the Aeon, on the Bridge where she belonged. The attraction of the thought was oddly comforting as she opened her eyes and smiled before turning her attention back to the fight – the fight that would, hopefully, see her back aboard soon.

The twin explosions in the direction of Yamamoto quickly grabbed her attention and she watched her scan analysis pop up on her tactical display. A yield of that magnitude ought to mean the other vehicle's dealt with, too, she thought as she surveyed the results.

“Yamamoto-Hei, are you all right?” she called over comms. Another starship operator. The thought brought a wide grin to her face. Our little QRF seems to be acquitting itself quite well.

Her grin evaporated as she glanced at the chronometer display. They had so little time to begin with and every moment brought defeat closer.

“All units, keep pushing!” she called out over the team-wide net before loping off toward the far-left flank again. The assault element had already eliminated several turrets but she kept her eyes open for more, and another other targets of opportunity.

Arkase sprayed aether fire at the two vehicles before him; he focused on the weapons' mounts and moved on from there, weaving in mid-air as best he could to avoid the inevitable return volley.

Trowa lost his grip on the truck by the force of the explosion. He hit the ground hard and laid still, trying to orient himself. He heard some call his name over the comm and sat up, looking around at the demolished vehicle. "Yea, I'm fine. How are you?" He answered, still slightly dazed. He suddenly remembered what was going on and quickly added. "Right-truck neutralized, ma'am."

Trowa got to his feet, his senses becoming clearer as the affects of the explosion wore off. He still had a job to do. He retrieved the shotgun that he had dropped when he had dropped and slung it over his shoulder, taking once again the assault rifle. The one-eyed, Nepleslian pilot moved along the right flank opposite Eun-Kyung, his rifle ready to blow the hell out of anything that got in his way.

Kyoka sought to obey the order by covering Arkase's flanks from behind. After all, leaving a teammate out in the field alone was bad conduct, last the Neko checked. She kept a careful eye out for any more enemy fire and prepared to retaliate at the first sign of shooting.

The two vehicles that were in front of Arkase took no action. They just sat there while he opened up with his weaponry.

However, portions of the walls on either side of the entrance opened up and rather formidable point defense turrets deployed and fired on any member of the Away Team who was within Line of Sight. The turrets were dual barrelled and fired a plasma blast. Two of them fired at Arkase catching him in a crossfire.

Asine having entered the front of the passage was fired upon by one of them and sent flying backwards until he compensated with his suits drives.

One of the turrets near the front tried to fire upon Kyoka, but the shot went wide as it would not get a clear shot at her.