RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

Seeing Yoroko in trouble, Kai called back his drones and had them target the Neko machines that were keeping her downed, and hoped that they would help ease off her annoyance. He himself continued firing on the enemies whom were under cover, occasionally blasting groupings of three or more with the SLAG attachment, granted he thought they would stay in place long enough for it to work. This was turning out to be a much easier scenario than he had thought his first combat action would be, but the Yamataian was still worrying that something big and bad was being readied for their destruction.

Nyton was in the middle of firing his LASR at two more androids. His adrenaline was soaring and he felt the familiar rush of accomplishment from killing his enemy when he was unwittingly thrown back in time to Nepleslia. In the middle of a decimated street lined by ruined buildings in one of the poorer sections of Roger Wilco, he stood there again in the middle of a firefight. The two androids were suddenly two shabby looking men with pistols charging at him from an alleyway. They shouted threats at him as they began aiming their weapons at him. He would have been able to shoot them first, he had a bead on them and was feeling the rush of emotion, adrenaline, and success when his weapon jammed. He ducked low to leap and roll to avoid their shots because drawing his other sidearm would take too long. He didn't think he would make it when two shots rang out, killing the two men.

Looking up from his crouched position he saw one of his father's employees. She was a female dressed in combat gear, carrying a GP-12 and several pistols strapped to her body. She was also among those trusted to go out on these engagements. "Mr. Claymere are you alright?" she shouted to him before he blinked a couple times. The helmet she wore covered the dark purple hair she kept tied back and tucked inside. Suddenly though the image faded off and he was staring at a DAISY helmet.

"Claymere-Taii, are you alright?" asked Aoiko who was looking down at him. Nyton immediately snapped back into reality and realized that he was crouching down, his LASR was still in perfectly good working order, and there was no secondary sidearm located where he had been reaching. The two androids had been dispatched by Aoiko just like the two men in his flashback had been, years ago. Quickly, to hide any sign of the episode as well as continue fighting, he immediately stood up and resumed the attack. "I am fine Murasaki-Chui. Thank you for the assist." he said before he tracked new targets and began to open fire. He put the flashback episode behind him for now.

"This is wrong," Kôsuka said quietly to herself as she took to the air. She let her two drones fall from their shoulder-mounted slots and assist her targeting. The wall to the right was of the same dull grey metal that most of the hangar floor was comprised of, absent the dust. Anti-gravity allowed her feet to touch down on the right wall and make her parallel with the floor, about 20 meters in the air. She had a much better of the field now, though she had to shoot one of the rushing androids in the face to keep it from disturbing her position. Her Energy Cloak protected her from the occasional NSP shot.

"Taii, Kôsuka," she said to Nyton. "The enemy is coming in greater numbers. I will attempt to halt their advance from up here." The Samurai saw a walkway about 15 meters up the left wall, and more android soldiers were popping out of the two entryways that fed into it. She mounted her Bazooka on her shoulder, took quick aim and fired at one of the entryways, attempting to make it impassable.

"This is wrong," she repeated to herself. "Nakamura-Hei, SLAG the walkway on the left wall."

* * *

Yuri was having difficulty making much impact, as her Plasma Rifle wasn't good for close-quarters fighting and using it as a bashing instrument wasn't recommended. She snarled and took out some of the androids with her bare hands after she'd shouldered her rifle.

That left Kei with the task of using her SLAG's grenades to blast and melt one of the entryways on the lower floor as impassable as possible. The perimeter was not easily maintained.

Yoroko screamed internally as she was tackled and now found herself underneath a small pile of robo-nekos. If anyone could have seen the Yamataian's face right now it would have been the most ugly Yamataian they could have imagined, her face contorted beyond recognition in a combination of righteous rage and pure hatred. Simultaneously her forearm blasters popped up and shot the two closest robo-nekos at full strength while Yoroko waited for her own drones to launch.

"Hai" Kai responded quickly, proceeding to the left and pinpoint a loadbearing section of the walkway before firing two SLAG rounds into the structure. The Yamataian waited a fraction of a second to make sure his hits were successful before turning back to the ball of androids that contained Yoroko in the middle. Seeing her fire with the forearm weapons, Kai remembered his own and stashed the shield (which was overkill in the situation) to proceed to help his squadmate out of her jam. "Yoroko, Try to stand back up if you can" he said, figuring that vertical was a better position to be fighting from.

The battle appeared to be locked at a stalemate by the sheer numbers of androids rushing to meet the Armor teams. Every passage that led into this hangar, and it was amazing to truly learn just how many there were, was being used to flood them with androids. Despite the ineffective weaponry the robots were exploiting their one strength effectively.

The androids that had been pinning down Yoroko felt the full brunt of the forearm blasts from point blank and were being successfully pushed off. Their torso's could not withstand the force from such close range and fell back completely inoperative. The blast knocked over others that had intended to join them, causing one to drop it's grenade. The android had been cooking the grenade to ensure it would make its mark. Instead it hit the floor and went off before it could be retrieved, blasting away more of the androids and giving Yoroko the precious time she needed to recover.

The rounds from Kai's SLAG hit their mark, although it wasn't really necessary since the proximity would have been enough. Regardless, the walkway's infrastructure was severely damaged and began to collapse, sending the walkway down to the floor. Some androids got crushed by the collapsing metal. The ones on the walkway either landed on their feet or used their anti-gravity to fly over and begin strafing. The access point however was mostly disabled.

"Understood, Kosuka." Nyton replied and linked the targeting from the Samurai's DAISY to the Hoshi. The initial blast from Kosuka's bazooka managed to destroy most of the opening but the following blasts coordinated from the weapon pods finished off the entrance and collapsed it with enough debris to make it impassable. Sensors indicated there were androids beneath and behind the rubble but there was no accessing the hangar from that way anymore.

Ichigo was struggling much like Rin to maintain herself but she drew strength from the others and charged into the battle, actively seeking out targets and destroying them rather then just knee jerking and reacting to threats. Perhaps it was just the adrenaline or fear, but somehow she knew she had to attack hard.

Mara was slightly enjoying herself. Seeing as she didn't even need to dodge the enemy's fire she just let the shields soak up the damage while she gave back in spades. "Come get some you cheap alloy wannabe's!" she shouted as her LASR spat out rounds, working to 'clear' their half of the perimeter as had been ordered.

Nimura, the silent sprite, was now in full action. She changed her posture from defense and finally went on the offense after noting, for herself anyway, the right time to strike. Taking flight she fired her SLAG into the crowd that was advancing from the main entrance. The 'holes' created by the explosions threw off those advancing on the ground and shook off pursuit from others that attempted to fly up after her. She used the break in their momentum to fly further down into the tunnel from the main entrance. Inside there, still more were crawling on the walls and ceilings like insects. Those made leaps at her but she quickly evaded them by curling tightly into a ball which made her a smaller target. She began to spin like a ball before sending a missle out from her missle pod down the tunnel. The missle detonated in midair and obliterated the forces coming down before from all sides. It was at that moment while they attempted to recover that Nimura flew to the intersecting corner of the tunnel and fired another missle into the advancing crowd. With the androids being shattered again she immediately hit the control panel to seal off the hallway that was being used in their advance. In another second she quickly fired at the panel to disable the door controls before firing again at the door's infrastructure. This stopped it in place and prevented the base's computer from opening the door.

Satisfied, Nimura then proceeded to secure the other hallway which had showed less use. Apparently the androids coming from this direction were making their way mainly from the sealed direction but now it looked like the flow had finally subsided. Satisfied she began raking destruction on her way back to rejoin the others.

Sensors began to show that there were less androids making their way into the hangar now thanks to everyone's combined efforts. The weapon pods managed to stop up the minor access points easily enough after several shots. All that was left to do was mop up now.

Yoroko took advantage of the brief opening to shift her inertia straight upward once she was above the crowd the Yamataian righted her facing so she was looking down at the remaining enemy 'nekos'. "Arigatou." Yoroko called out to Kai before opening fire on the crowd again with her plasma rifle. What do we do next? Yoroko wondered to herself.

All of a sudden, a great amount of interference hit the sensors of those on the planet, limiting their perception to the extent where only visual light optical sensors could be depended upon.

"Aether interdiction detected," came Hinoto's voice over audio to both armor teams. "Attempting to coordinate with Daisy Cs to mitigate interference; please stand by before leaving hangar."

* * *

The aether interdiction field expanded a good 100 kilometers beyond the mountain stronghold. Up in Miharu, Kotori looked at how far the field had expanded and then said: "Shosa, order our fightercraft to leave the interference zone and land themselves on the planet's surface and go in silent running until Hoshi emerges again. Black Knight team is to return to escort Miharu."

"Contact the sprites we have manning engineering and have them compile a damage report," Kotori said, now looking directly at Yukari as she spoke. "Have Sigurd himself attend an inspection of the warheads and probes left in storage - we can't pull off our ruse if we have too few left."

She then eyed Miyoko. "Heisho, retrieve all our weapon pods, set them to yamataium armor regenerative drone configuration and put them to work on restoring Miharu's hull armor. After that, run an inventory of the remaining warheads we have up in the rollbar's torpedo launcher."

"huh?" Kai muttered as most of his sensors went dead suddenly. That could not be a good sign. At least he could still see though, and so he continued fighting. Upon hearing Hinoto's observation, Kai nodded mentally, now understanding what was up. He continued firing upon his enemies, Keeping to the same Methodical, precise shooting he had been up to before. There seemed to be slightly less of them, which was a good thing. he only wished they would stop coming very soon, so they could get to their main objective.

Nyton heard Hinoto's report and expanded his sensor package's capacity. "Confirmed, Hinoto. Configuring sensors for broader range. Appropriate this suit as primary, Kosuka as secondary and backup." he replied. "Kosuka-san, calibrate your sensors and provide redundant backup to the Hoshi." he ordered while taking cover to allow his Armor to focus on the task a little over combat.

Sekkou's MEGAMI, after a bout of arguing with Hoshi's CIES, answered Sumaru with a text message.

Sekkou said:

Soul Savior Pod launched in the Great Southern Nebula prior to entering the Bowhordia star system as a precaution.

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There was an attached file with a set of coordinates; the approximate location of the pod.

Fred said:

She then eyed Miyoko. "Heisho, retrieve all our weapon pods, set them to yamataium armor regenerative drone configuration and put them to work on restoring Miharu's hull armor. After that, run an inventory of the remaining warheads we have up in the rollbar's torpedo launcher."

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Miyoko's fingers flitted over the controls, issuing the recall order for the drones to come back and get refitted for repair duties. Perhaps the ship would have a bit less of a punch while they were equipped for repair rather than attacks... but glancing at the ship's status monitor, Miyoko knew which she was more concerned about at the moment. She pulled up the inventory of torpedoes, reading off her findings. "Four AS-7 transphasic aether, four AS-7 antimatter, and seven AS-7 subspace detonators, Taisa."

"Acknowledged," Kôsuka said, doing as ordered. The sensors went offline for a few seconds, then returned, giving the sensors of the other teams a boost.

* * *

"Red 2, Black Squadron, Miharu. Proceed to new waypoint and enter silent running." Yukari had already placed a point on Bowhordia that was outside the range of the interdiction field, some 115 kilometers outside the source. The blue needle spun on the projected surface, a small blue circle above it showing the acceptable landing radius. "Wait for Hoshi to converge toward your position. Miharu out."

"Black Knights, Miharu. Take up escort formation Beta around Miharu. Ship defense only; do not scramble." Formation Beta involved boxing the ship in at a minimum of three and a maximum of eight points, with each point being responsible for a section of the ship. Yukari wanted maximum coverage for now; it was best to be prepared for attack instead of allowing for patrols.

"All crew, begin damage assessments. Repeat, damage assessment now priority." She paused after speaking over the communicators of each crewmember, her glowing blue arm resting on her seat as her gaze remained on the main screen. "Sigurd-san? Yes. Please assess our spare torpedoes now. ... Yes. That will do. Be careful. Thank you, Sigurd-san."

"Maintaining present course above Bowhordia," she said to Kotori and Miyoko in general, though her eyes were forward. Sigurd would not be long in assessing the torpedoes, though he was waiting for a technician to assist him.

With the sensors synced up Nyton got back to the task at hand. While Nimura had stopped the flow of androids their position was still not secured. The front line was struggling to deal with the torrent of androids that were rushing headlong. Using the tactical computer Nyton immediately assessed where they needed to support. His mind divided as it sought to send out simultaneous text messaging and relay his orders.

Mara, sync with Yuri and provide her with cover fire. Give her an opening so she can rearm herself more effectively.

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he sent to Mara, Yuri, and Kosuka.

Freeman, you, Ichigo, and Rin focus on cleaning up the androids behind our line. We've stemmed the tide, now we need to sweep this place clean.

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he messaged to all three. Along with the message he sent a tactical diagram of the hangar bay. The diagram gave them objectives to sweep clear that consisted of a Objective 1: group of androids atop one of the overlooking walkways, Objective 2: another was dug in and shooting at them from a wrecked shuttle, Objective 3: another group was crawling up the walls and attempting to go around the perimeter. Each one had a suggested course of action such as 1.SLAG, 2.charge, and 3.precision fire.

Sumaru, is the ship secured yet or not? We need you out here. Be aware the Aether Canceller has activated.

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he sent to Sumaru.

Sanjuro, form up at my position and provide support fire for the Assault Team's perimeter along with Murasaki.

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Nyton messaged to both Sanjuro and Aoiko. Nyton placed a marker which showed where he should be in relation to Aoiko. It was roughly a protected spot between Nyton and Aoiko.

All messages were sent out simultaneously just as Nyton turned around and created a giant drill from his VAW. He punched out and caught an android right in the chest which was impaled by the force of impact and the corkscrew action as it dug in. A quick shot to the head from his LASR followed up before the VAW retracted, the drill simply melting out of the body. The android was left limp and sparking on the floor. He then returned to shooting at the mass that remained, AIES linked with everyone's so that each member knew what was being shot at and by who.

Nyton began trying to use the sensors to map out the base and determine where the rest of Sekkou's crew may be. There was also the matter of enemy intelligence that they needed to pursue along with the disabling of the aether canceller. For that he knew they needed Takuma but not what the computer specialist required to make that happen.

Takuma, the Aether Canceller is up. What kind of access do you need in order to hack into the base? What sort of terminal are we looking for?

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Nyton quickly messaged in inquiry to Takuma. As soon as the answer would be received, Nyton would add that to his search parameters as he continued to scan the base.

Kai continued to fire, the seemingly endless stream of androids was getting annoying, as well as worrying him. If they had the resources to waste all these on the armor team, then they had the resources for something big. And with the Aether canceling in effect, Mindies and most larger things would be useless to help them. After taking down several more enemies, Kai's suit notified him the LASR was nearly out of ammunition. Thankful for helpful things like that, he unloaded his magazine on a group of the machines before pulling out another, switching the two as quickly as he could. Deciding, however, to save the LASR ammunition for more important things, Kai switched to solely using the forearm weapons, as they seemed to be doing well against the machines, even if it decreased his accurate range a little.

"Any kind of security access terminal should work," Takuma said, lowering his rifle, now pointing it at the ground. "If you can locate some kind of a security station, or at the very least, a direct access point to the network, I should be able to get things done. Working on an authorized computer would be more likely to get successful results, though."

"Any kind of security access terminal should work. If you can locate some kind of a security station, or at the very least, a direct access point to the network, I should be able to get things done. Working on an authorized computer would be more likely to get successful results, though."

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Nyton was grateful that Takuma had not suffered a slow down in response time due to the battle. In his status windows he noted that Kai had just recently changed his magazine. No sooner had that happened then he realized his own magazine was almost out. At this rate everyone else would soon be running low on ammunition and have to change out magazines.

"Reloading!" Nyton announced to Aoiko and Sanjuro as he quickly began to reload his LASR with another magazine of regular ball rounds before someone else reached critical. Simultaneously he continued his scans of the base to find a terminal as needed.

The layout showed that the security station in the hangar had been destroyed during all the commotion. That meant they would need to penetrate deeper into the base. The last accessible tunnel connected to a series of access corridors. Supply rooms, maintenance accesses, and small quarters were nearby. Seeking out the life signs of the Sekkou crew, Nyton traced them down to the medical center which was just beyond those rooms. He had expected them to be in the brig or some other holding facility but instead they had been herded there. The Aether Interdiction Field could still disrupt some of his scans which caused the reading to be rather fuzzy and inconclusive to the actual number of members.

I've located some of the crew in the medical center. When I give the signal we're advancing the line and pushing them back into the tunnel.

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Nyton texted Kosuka.

The turn of events relieved Tom considerably. The enemy had given up their land advantage to their superior firepower and allowed them to establish a defensive perimeter. This round was theirs for sure.

Carefully making sure Rin was regaining her composure, the engineer spoke to her.

"Rin, looks like we've got the advantage now. All we have to do is mop up now. Good work! Now, focus your fire on those enemies on the walkway. Should be easy pickings, but be careful. I'm going to take care of the enemies hiding near the shuttle."

He directed his attention to Ichigo.

"Ok, Ichigo, rock those dummies trying to climb the walls."

That left the bunkered-down enemies to the engineer, who gladly approached them with his forearm weapons blazing. They were rather under-armed at the moment, so it was best to take care of the enemies as soon as possible before whatever else was on this base arrived.

Kôsuka had stopped giving orders to her team, as Nyton took over. She was glad for it; leading troops was not her strongest attribute. She was aware of the attackers in the shuttle, however, and she knew just how to eliminate them.

She took aim with her Bazooka, ignoring the occasional strikes to her forearm shield. A blast touched off her energy cloak, but she ignored that too. From her vantage point up high she had just the right angle to attack the shuttle, and did so with two rounds.

Both easily cut through the gutted shuttle's armor and exploded around the targets inside it. All were eliminated with the two rounds. She had three left.

"All units prepare to move the line!" she called out over the comm.

"H- Hai Freeman-Juni." Rin took a few moments just to aim, since hitting a friendly with a SLAG round would not be fun. Once she had her sights set upon the androids on the walkway above, the sprite fired a single fragmentation round. Her still slightly shakey hands threw her aim off just a bit, but she readied her LASR to mop up whatever wasn't toast, only to found out... Click...click...... her magazine was empty. "C- crud..." she muttered to herself, her hands hurrying to reload.