RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 31: Wakusei

The advantage Molli won was a transitory one, despite all of her cunning and skill. Though the element of surprise let the Nepleslian score a brutal strike on one of her pursuers, Molli was aware that the other wasn't going to let it go unanswered. With their massive sword thrumming with superheated pink energy that she could practically feel the heat from given her close proximity, Molli didn't dare entertain any foolish notions of clashing with her foe. Thankfully, her frame was more than capable of an agile dodge, and Molli's thrusters boosted her out of the way mere inches before the blade could cleave her in two. "Hah! Nice try!" The Nepleslian's voice crackled through the speakers of her mecha's face-plate, taunting her foe's failed counter.

Not content to rest on a verbal riposte, Molli flew over the swordsman's blade and sent her aether-coated blade screaming down at the metal hands grasping the hilt, with the intent to sever them clean off and deprive her foe of a dangerous weapon. "Try harder! Ent even ah neko!" Molli added, hoping to tilt the enemy pilots with her taunts. Angry racers often made mistakes, and mecha pilots shouldn't be any different.

The plan had worked! Sif couldn't help but grin as the group chasing her were thrown into disarray upon William's arrival, cutting through the middle of the group with his swords and ballistics. She shifted her own barrage of laser fire towards the mechs on the outskirts as her way of going "Don't forget about me!" She'd have to make a pass back towards them before they get too invested in William and look to be his dance partner instead.

The closest mech to her was doing its best to avoid her fire, while trying to find an opening to hit her behind the shield. But she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore as a pink plume erupted from it causing it to fall from the sky, leaving a trail of smoke. By this time, the shield's projector had shown four of the ten segments filled. It got her thinking, since the shield was always going to be in front of her, facing the enemy head on, maybe it could be refitted with some sort of weapon or some other utility. A bright light perhaps to burn out sensors. Maybe a gigantic laser beam? She'd have to consult with the engineers if that was going to be possible. For now, she had some killthyars to tango with.

William was going for another pass, so she had to do her best to pack them back together tightly. And she'd try to do just that by making a sharp turn that would hopefully get them to slow down and bunch up on the bend. She kept her shield presented to the enemy so they were unable to ignore that half of the segments were filled now and crackling effects began to dance around the surface. All the while she shot around the grouping, trying to get them to tighten back up, not necessarily trying to hit them.

Rio had not expected it but the sudden additional rifle fire was a welcome addition to her own. But even as the Killthyar clutched at its chest and appeared to be taking its dying gasp with sporadic shots thanks to the combined fire, Rio fired several more aimed burst into the enemy machine's chest. Satisfied with the enemy's dying condition, Rio shifted her view back to her mecha as she sent a quick message over comms, "Thank you Taisa!"

Using the team datalink to determine her teammates positions, Rio moved to assist Molli with her pursuers. Kicking off with a plume of dust and aether Rio jumped from her cover to clear several buildings in order gain a line of sight on Molli, before using a rooftop as another jumping off point to bring her into the fight from above.

As she descended, Rio began to fire down on the group around Mollie while she called out, "Room for one more?"

As the green and blue mecha soared through the killthyar formation, William had a smirk on his face. Switching one of his swords for a shotgun, he turned back for his second pass. Loading a fresh magazine, he let loose another salvo to add to the fire still spewing from his cannons. They were getting hammered by Sif and himself, but with Hoshi adding her firepower to theirs they had the NMX mechs over a barrel.

"Nice shooting!" He called to Hoshi and Sif as they mopped up. Consulting his tactical display revealed that Rio had moved on to help Molli while Aiko faced down her own attackers. "If you have this locked down, I'll go help Aiko," he added, directing the message to Hoshi.

"Yes," Aiko said back to Boss in Yamataigo, the simple single syllable response sufficient for the heat of battle. She didn't take any time to think about what the communication could be while she darted and weaved between Urtullan's buildings only a few meters above the streets that intersected each, avoiding enemy fire that plunged into the colony's infrastructure instead of her mecha.

Through her robot's drone weapon pods, Aiko had kept watch on the pair of Killthyar mechs that had her in their sights. For a time, the princess had refrained from firing, instead only using the gun drones to observe the battlescape in her mind; a partial 3d map of her immediate area fed by data from those remote bits floated in her brain as she proceeded onward. But soon enough, Aiko's approach would meet with the enemy's countercharge, and so she opened up on her foes from all around.

Targeting eight of her twelve particle beam pods on the Mishhu mech closing in on her to clash, Aiko altered her course to avoid a melee just yet and zeroed in on the Killthyar that was preparing its missile racks. The last four gun bits were kept hovering in reserve to keep their vigil above and be ready for whatever point defense may be required. Dashing through side streets and past high-rises whose windows had been shattered by the concussive blasts that'd erupted when battle was met a few minutes before, she finally rounded a final corner to confront the missile jockey and pulled her mammoth sword upward from her crimson mecha's hip as if executing an iai strike.

Aiko's slash aimed to slice through her opponent's right leg and sweep through its glowing missile tubes, and then carry on up into its torso before cleaving out the Killthyar robot's left shoulder. With any luck—and much practiced sword skill put into the attack—she would finish this Killthyar quick and then be ready for the other, which was no doubt diverting its course to track her down despite the volley her weapon pods had been unleashing upon it.

“I believe we’ve spoken before, not sure,” came a crackling voice through the laser comm. It cut in and out as Aiko passed by buildings, but the voice was unmistakably of the demure but unflappable Robert Englebert. “They’re trying to get the intact mecha out asap through a secondary elevator shaft, but I’ve been working on taking down the force field of the dome you’re in. Think if you have them out in the open that’ll give you a better shot at expunging these occupiers, Miss?”

As three quarters of Aiko’s intensive clutch of particle beam’s struck into the mecha that had been hoping to clash swords with her, the Ketsurui averted their advance. The Killthyar no longer had the ability to sustain its attention on Aiko as it tried to parry against the swilring bits as they unleashed their weapon’s fire. Having honed in on the missile-bearing mecha, she was able to slice through the glowing missile tubes just a fraction of a second before the artillery burst. The severed fronts of the undetonated heads steamed angrily before falling limply to the street below. Her sword seemed primed for this attack and kept dividing the mecha in two like a hot knife through butter. Upon her sword’s exit, the left side of the mecha slumped down and collapsed as the missile heads had just before.

"You got it," came Hoshi's reply to the newest recruit, Rio. Molli’s blade cut through the air with precision as Rio’s shots peppered the enemy mecha that the Nepleslian was engaging. The aether stung into the sword wielder’s hand, lopping off mechanical fingers that splayed instinctively outwards. Released from the Killthyar’s grip, the sword fell but the shoulder weaponry of the mecha that Molli had closed in on pivoted slightly, aiming at the Nepleslian before loosing a salvo in the face of Molli’s mecha. The mecha that she had slashed up the visor of turned their attention to Rio, shooting into the mecha with aetheric animosity as the Neko arrived.

Skating up a collapsed building to gain a height advantage, Hoshi continued to shoot at the grouping rounded up by Sif as William’s salvos struck down the previously injured mecha and damaged more. Only five were left seemingly unscathed of the fifteen from before. At his request, Hoshi spoke from her retreating position.

“Remember Aiko’s orders—there are dozens more lurking somewhere in this dome and we can’t let them regroup! She can handle the paltry few she’s engaging, but what of the rest?” Hoshi asked, forwarding her conversation as well as the enemy positions as she knew them to Aiko.

The ID-SOL nodded at Hoshi's words. "Understood, let's clear the board then!" William replied, his armor skating across the ground and circling the five remaining mechs. Occasionally, William would change direction and launch through their formation, sword slashing out to catch whichever mech was caught flat-footed by the marine's rapid movements.

On one of these passes, the shotgun he was wielding was shot out of his hand. "You little bastard!" The Nepleslian cursed, charging the offending killthyar. His now free hand grabbed his other sword while the other sword flashed with an upward arc, aiming to cleave the killthyar in two. "Now you pissed me off. I liked that gun!" He yelled, his helmet transmitting the threat through the mech's external speakers. He wanted the NMX pilot to know they screwed up.

Taking out the enemy's melee weapon was a sound tactical decision, but when the enemy shoulder armament swiveled her way with an ominous whir, Molli remembered what her harsh tactics instructor had attempted to teach her back in basic: the risks you take should not outweigh their rewards in most circumstances. Molli disabled a weapon, but had put herself in the line of fire. The sharp punch of missiles loosed at high velocity was difficult to react to, but Molli managed to push her mecha frame down and away from the enemy, boosting to the city's streets as the missiles burned a trail of smoke after her. She made a sharp turn, seemingly evading the danger entirely, but an impact rocked the pod she sat in, throwing Molli against the seat's straps painfully. Diagnostics flashed over the panoramic screen -- a grazing blow to the head, but enough to damage the quality of the visual sensors stored within. "Och...!" Molli cursed, her crimson eyes glaring at the screen that occasionally glitched and flickered to black.

The impact briefly sent the frame spiraling, but Molli had managed to regain control and swerve away from a nasty collision with one of the buildings. After an emergency shift into the frame's starship configuration, Molli was soaring above the street, the Nepleslian's pods returned fire to the foe that she now hated the most today, while keenly aware that their friend was in their newest recruit's sights. "Watch th'missiles, Ro!" Molli's rough, accented voice crackled over Rio's comms, "An' watch out for what ahm throwin'!" Any explanation for what that meant, exactly, didn't come.

Molli had flown so low to the ground to find the massive sword that now protruded from the concrete. In one fluid motion, her mecha unfolded, and its outstretched hands gripped the hilt in the same motion. The momentum from Molli's high-speed flying carried the Nepleslian, and her stolen sword, up into the sky, right underneath its former owner. "Take y'gewgaw back, y' shunt!" she yelled, before spinning once, then loosing the blade tip first on the roundabout. As strong as their armor was, Molli was positive it couldn't stand up whatever those swords were made of.

"Rob-san?" Aiko questioned in a way that sounded more like a confirmation than a query. He was far from a trustworthy man owing to his association with her enemies, but in the midst of battle there was little time for pondering in the face of action. "Do it," the princess decided without pause, telling the engineer to bring down the shielding that protected this colony from Urtullan's chaotic atmosphere.

With the missile launching Killthyar falling apart before her, Aiko positioned her mecha's great katana diagonally across its chest and took up a guarding stance. There were still Mishhuvurthyar out there tracking her and fighting her shipmates, after all, so she took the moment to collect herself and otherwise lay waiting to spring up and slash whatever came her way. Simultaneously, she pulled back all of her gun drones to form a perimeter around her current position and provide early warning as to any oncoming threats.

"I have received intelligence that these Mishhuvurthyar seek to abscond rather than fight us," Aiko announced to her comrades. "They are heading for an alternate access tunnel to make their escape. If you are free of a fight then attempt to track where our enemy is fleeing to. An engineer we encountered during the recon mission has informed me he is opening this colony dome's force field, so the Battle of Elysia or our Kaiyō in orbit will have a clean shot to seal their escape route and trap these fiends here with us."

Of course, all of this made sense to Ketsurui Aiko. Better to fight dozens of Mishhuvurthyar weapons and destroy them now than to allow their escape, no matter the odds.

"Captain," the princess added. "Please give Boss authorization to strike, or request such from the Izanagi."

With thinning hostilities, Sif could better take notes on the situation. Her shield took an impressive amount of fire, no doubt enough to disable her mech completely were she without it. Damage to her mech itself were so far superficial and all systems were good save for her thrusters which were put on a lot of stress, having to compensate for the shield's drag in flight, but they should still be good for a while yet. Although she had a feeling she wasn't going to hear the end of it from the engineers who worked on it so passionately.

"Update received. Moving to eliminate dance partners to pursue next objective," she'd respond to the announcement of runners. She'd have to land decisive strikes to take these Killthyars out of commission. With Hoshi and William's assistance in the matter, it shouldn't take too long for her to be freed from this skirmish. As their attention was split, Sif directly engaged with two of her pursuers, braking in the air, turning before lunging towards them, shield first. As she turned she released her grip on the spear, letting it freefall and making it seem like her maneuver caused her to disarm herself, but with its navigation systems activated, the spear would lock on to the mech that Sif wasn't barreling towards. A burst from its Aether thruster sent it flying off like a missile to skewer one mech while Sif would bash the other with her shield.

The formation was in shambles after William's last pass as he took out the slowest of the enemies. Those that remained were either being focused by the ID-SOL or had taken to flying off, coasting towards a more distant part of their city despite their flock being thinned. Taking the full extent of William's auditory harassment was a lone Killthyar whose armor sung out in recoil as his blade swept through it. A moment later, a bright pink light erupted from the place his sword had torn it asunder as the armor split.

Sif's spear loosed from her hand, it danced through the air as if a lone figure. Its tracking locked on to the enemy, though, chunking into the armor that the Kaiyo shooters had already punched at. The mecha it had hit grappled at the spear momentarily, but it had struck some kind of deeper control mechanism and its arms fell to its side even as its flight systems failed and it pirouetted downward.

Far above, Molli was jettisoning in her mecha's secondary configuration. The formation of enemy Killthyar absconding from the Kaiyo's main position almost passed right overhead, but she had flown low again. The enemy sword she had grabbed found its rightful place with its owner once more, albeit in the middle of the mecha's body. Whether its sword was powerful or her previous attacks had weakened it or a combination of the two, the mecha shuddered above her, then fell from its position limply like a ragdoll. The other mecha targeting her joined soon thereafter, taken down by a few shots from Rio's vantage.

Above Aiko and the rest of the mecha within the city, the blue dome crackled on and off momentarily. Disturbingly, when it came back online it was a blood red color that cast an ominous glow on them all. Long shadows crept our from the buildings and contrasted with the bright red on the streets and fallen structures. Within a moment though, a thunderous flash of red then bleak darkness reigned above them. Gone was the overhead force field and suddenly the force field that kept out the toxic air of Urtullan swept in alongside a brisk, sandy breeze. Overhead, the stars shone bright as did a piercing teal jettison of light as the Kaiyō's shock array sent a beam at the secondary elevator shaft.

In a flurry, a grouping of Killthyar that had been en route to the shaft now decimated by the Kaiyō swarmed upward, readying to take flight into the desert night.

"Find your targets and fell them before they can escape," Aiko said, her mecha's head directing its visual sensors up toward the revealed heavens above. "Launch!"

Immediately thereafter, the princess' towering crimson mecha crouched a few meters on its sturdy legs and launched. In her wake, Aiko's robot left a plume of dust and teal-white aetherfire as she ascended toward the fleeing Killthyar enemies. Down closer to the surface, her gun funnels that had been waiting for a target to enter their engagement perimeter fanned out and hunted down the single Mishhu mech Aiko knew was still grounded in its hunt for her and fired without pause, refusing to stop their withering volley until it was downed.

All around Urtullan, the rocket exhaust of fleeting Killthyar squiggled through the lower atmosphere like cheap black snake ash fireworks worming their way across the midnight blue sky. Aiko's mecha flashed skyward through the air in pursuit of a grouping of enemy exhaust trails. The foes they had been sent to eliminate were running, now, so Aiko wasted no effort on concerning herself with countermeasures. Only catching the Mishhu beasts before they could escape and lend their strength to an offensive against Yamatai mattered now, and Aiko would set the example for her comrades as she did in years past, though she did not intend it through her inherent bravery.

Urtullan's cutting sand lashed out, marring the carmine paint on Aiko's machine to reveal the metallic glitter of zesuaium beneath it, but nonetheless she proceeded. With a lagging Mishhu mech in her sights, Aiko fired her robot's head-mounted plasma vulcan cannons and reached its left arm out to catch a leg if she could. The princess' mighty zesu-aether katana was poised in her trailing right arm, ready to swing in a wide arc to strike should she catch her mark.

The Killthyar she had bashed with the shield had a moment to lean away from it, so while she was able to make contact, the full force was not transferred and it retreated along with the others. But not for long. The Shield Maiden dropped to the ground, following the smoke trail of the mech that had been skewered by her spear. The ground rumbled as she landed, one foot to brace against the disabled mech as she pulled the spear free, before boosting away towards her previously engaged Killthyar. "Moving to next objective."

She kept her altitude just above the buildings as she steadily caught up to the mech, being slower from the damage done to it by William and Hoshi's combined fire, and Sif was there to finish the job, aiming to thrust her weapon in its back as if she were spearfishing. She wasn't going to let this one regroup with a bigger detachment, even if they were only planning on escaping. "The shield was a mercy shunned, now fall to my spear!"

William sighed as the killthyars began to fly away. "Big mistake." The Nepleslian remarked as he flew to the top of the highest building. With everyone airborne, it gave the marine quite the view. On his HUD, a command prompt opened. "Ammo change. Load air burst rounds. Commence Anti Air subroutine. Execute!" He ordered. Bending back to give his cannons a clear view of the sky, they began to sling round after round into the sky. As they neared one of the airborne killthyars, the round would detonate all around them. Soon enough, the skies above the dome looked like a true war zone as tracer rounds fired up into the air only to explode.

As he worked, he sent updated targeting information to his allies' HUDs. The HUDs displayed red lines and spheres to mark the path of his incoming rounds. The last thing he wanted was a blue-on-blue incident.

Molli's celebratory fist pump over her successful impalement of an enemy mecha was curtailed by the shock of the blood red sky that darkened the dreary ruins around them, casting an ominous pall over the area. Molli had seen worse, though, and she had the NMX to thank for that. When Aiko's orders came in crisp and clear, Molli promptly shot higher into the sky in starship configuration, so as to better chase down their fleeing targets. As her mecha's pods blasted volleys of aether plasma toward the backs of the enemy units, the soldier felt a gnawing sense of guilt in her mind. They were the enemy, but shooting anyone in the back felt like something slum gangsters would do. There was no honor in that, Molli thought, even as she kept her thumbs pressed firmly on the triggers.

There was no place for a bleeding heart on the battlefield, of course. She'd do her part for the sake of her squad. That didn't mean she had to like it, but thankfully, nobody could see her frowning.

As the last of her and Mollie's group of Killthyar fell burning to the streets below, Rio exchanged her rifles empty magazine for a fresh one as the world was bathed in red. As she gazed down at the wreckage in the streets bathed in that bloody red light, she mused on the sight. A fitting one considering their bloody work this night. "Eerily beautiful..." she thought, then came Aiko's orders as the dome fell and it was time to pursue the enemies of Yamatai once more.

As she joined the chaotic aerial chase after the fleeing enemy, Rio opened fire with both her rifle and shoulder cannon on the the lead Killthyars of the group being chased by Aiko. She intended to take out the lead unit to halt or slow the groups flight from the Kaiyō team.

"Hope that helps," Rob's gruff voice shot into Aiko's comms. "You'll be doing us a service freeing Urtullan again!"

Hoshi had been backing away from the fight and absconded to a building just on the edge of the dome's brink where she could see the city and much of the desert beyond.

Any qualms Molli had about stabbing enemies in the back, Sif did not hold the same scruples and speared down the wounded enemy with a fervor that could only flourish on the battlefield. The captain could see her squad carrying out Aiko's orders and targeting wide swathes of enemies. There were so many that even William's firework-like artillery display only took out a small fraction of those fleeing. Several targets fell but were not out of the fight fully as they tried to regain control of their damaged systems. The princess and greenest recruit were targeting enemies in two very different positions with Aiko focusing the lagging mecha and Rio on the lead runner. Though Aiko was able to hook the delayed enemy, Rio was not so lucky as she got caught up in the fray.

Once the Killthyar grouping was into the desert, some of the aether systems in their rifles glowed a deep orange even as they fled. Their shoulder-mounted weapons swiveling forward and popping up into place while leg pods opened at the shins.

"Incoming enemy fire," the captain huffed into comms, wishing she was mistaken. From her position, Hoshi almost called for Molli, Rio, and Aiko to find cover but realized the three were already far away from buildings and already too deep into the sandy dunes of Urtullan to do as much. At their positions still on buildings and with the cover of the city, William, Sif, and Hoshi were not in the direct line of fire, but the other three would be hit no matter. The captain couldn't help but notice one Killthyar pulling away from the group to flank their own units.

As one, the grouping of Killthyar turned on their pursuers. Now holding a defensive position and with many of their weapons having been charged and prepped for their next battery, there was very little time between the switch from flight to fight and their aetheric ordnance loosing on the trio.

William cursed as the Killthyar pilots finally got their act together and began their counterattack. "That's not good," he remarked, leaping from the building to fall to the streets below. It was better to put the buildings between himself and the incoming fire than to stand on the top of one and tempt fate. As he hit the ground, he began to skate through the city, scanning the map as he fled his previous position. If they were going to focus on his flying teammates, he would make them pay for it.

Taking cover behind a building at the dome's edge, he waited for the first volley of enemy fire to roll through. Once they attacked, William would flank their positions from the ground. Hopefully, with some luck, he'd be faster than the Killthyar's weapon recharge.

Molli didn't let her misgivings endanger her operational effectiveness, and so continued her pursuit of the enemy across the turbulent dunes beyond the ruined city. With the blaring of her repeating shotgun and leg pods punching Yamataian aether across the sky, there was no doubting that Molli wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible. And then the Killthyar seemingly sprung their trap, pivoting on the spot and loosing a salvo of charged orange ordinance. Molli's eyes widened at her screen, and memories of that ill-fated charge in the Mishhu ship flashed in her thoughts. The lesson it had taught mustn't have stuck.

No fidgin' way, Molli's gaze shot to the massive dunes that dotted the landscape. Light and spritely as her frame was, the Nepleslian dove for the sand like an arrow, punching right through the hill-like ground with enough force to disappear under the depths entirely. As the enemy's guns rocked the ground above with enough force to throw Molli against her seat straps in every direction, she feared for the princess and their newest recruit. Surely Aiko would keep her safe, as she had for Molli in her first mission.

Submerging into the sand had caused nominal damage to the frame, which mounted with every second Molli shot through it. Her greatest fear was running headlong into a massive rock and dying instantly--at least it'd spare the others from digging a grave. Once the bone-chilling vibrations died down, Molli thought in that instant that she'd escaped the killzone, and so she pulled up sharply, exploding out of the sand like a missile. Her mecha shifted into a bipedal form, and the sword it drew cleaved at the nearest Killthyar in sight. Suddenly, stabbing someone in the back didn't seem that bothersome.

For a brief moment Rio was so focused on pursuing the lead machines of the fleeing Killthyar group that she had not only caught up to the end of the group of Killthyar and Aiko, but had failed to notice the charging of weapons in the group. A failure of her part as Hoshi's warning over the comms brought Rio out of her tunnel vision.

Even as the enemy ordinance flew towards her, Rio reoriented her machine to a near feet first position as she redlined her mecha's thrusters to change her direction of travel upwards and away from the incoming ordinance. It felt like her mecha was about rip itself to pieces thanks to her maneuver, the machine violently shuddering and groaning under the stress. While she could evade some, Rio couldn't evade all of them. Just before impact she thought to cut the Thought systems pain feedback and simply left a damage indicator on her HUD. Then came the enemy ordinance.

For a brief moment there was multiple flashes followed by darkness and then Rio exited the cloud left behind by the multiple missiles explosions. She had stopped ascending and the damage indicators for both of her mecha's legs flashed red as she began to rapidly lose thrust.

"Yoshida here. My legs are badly damaged and I'm losing thrust. I'm going down." Rio shakily called over comms as she began to fall, the thrusters of her backpack working to keep her from plummeting in free fall towards the Urtullan sands.