RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 31: Wakusei

[Gles]

Molli registered her three targets with a scrutinizing eye, but the looming threat of Sif's last stand had the young soldier considering options quickly. As artillery boomed and shook the very foundation of the city outside, Molli made the choice to level her shotgun at that strange device the three killthyar were building and pull the trigger, rapidly cycling the chamber with robot-like efficiency. With any luck, maybe shooting it enough times would create some kind of explosion, if not destroy the device outright.

"Give it up!" Molli's voice boomed through her frame's voice modulator as she adjusted her aim and sent cones of aetherfire down at the ones building the machine next, with her pods supplanting the barrage of gunfire. She aimed for exposed or damaged joints, well-aware of how strong their mecha's armor was by now. "Yeh lost!" The Nepleslian didn't have high hopes that they would acquiesce to her demands, but a part of her hoped for an end to the killing sooner rather than later. She was prepared to respond with words, or with a timely dodge, anyhow.

 

[Ametheliana]

For Hoshi out in the desert she focused on the SiZi in her hands rather than looking past it at Overseer Charbon. Her focus remained on where the cylinder below ended and the barrel dipped slightly and how aligned the rear and front sights were. She had shot the revolver hundreds of times but never considered the small details she was taking in now.

But her grey-haired enemy withdrew rather than wait for an answer. Watching Charbon retreat into the hostile landscape of Urtullan, Hoshi shifted her focus and moved the gun imperceptibly to straighten the sights on the NMX Nekovalkyrja.

Then, Charbon lifted a hand from her belt and Hoshi's deep blue eyes narrowed, trying to make out the movement in the dark. When Charbon's body twisted slightly, Hoshi feared for the worst—Charbon had a pistol this whole time and was firing it on her.

Hoshi gritted her teeth and her hand flinched down just before she loosed the light plasma cartridge through the barrel of her SiZi. She shot first and it splashed into the sand below Charbon, kicking up a long ribbon of Urtuallan grit that was taken by the breeze. Hoshi could see through the powder that the NMX Overseer had risen her hand and saluted the captain. Charbon turned again and, even from this distance, Hoshi could hear a faint, throaty laugh on the wind from Charbon as she turned around to walk back the way she was going.

"Maybe the worms will get her," Hoshi murmured to herself. But she didn't even believe that, nor did she hope for it.

 

[Nameless]

"Well done! So you can hit a moving target!" Sif continued to taunt as her shield fell apart, but the rush of her battle high had overtaken the worry she had, but she did not miss the dangers of a lack of cover. From where she was, out in the open, she was able to see the Kaiyo crewmen take care of the entrenched enemy, with support fire from the ship, keeping them in cover. If she could get above the city, the enemy mechs won't have a clear shot without exposing themselves to the ship's fire.

"Shield Maiden's lost her shield," she'd report to the team. "I'm disengaging and will attempt to reengage once I've re-positioned." Sif dropped the remains of her shield and shot up into the air while keeping an eye open for projectiles. While her primary defense was now gone, she was a whole lot more aerodynamic and perhaps slightly more agile as she was no longer fighting air resistance and there wasn't a heavy weight on her hand so doing aerial turns was easier to do.

"Making my way above the city now, anyone need assistance?"

 

[Megabirb]

A very intrusive thought invaded Rio's mind as she watched the debris of the destroyed shield wing fall away "A little further over and that could have...." She did not finish the thought as it brought with it the realization that she had already had two other close calls this mission. Something was different this time, maybe it was the sheer suddenness of it or some other reason that she could not understand, but this time Rio felt scared. The fear of death had reared it's ugly head, causing Rio to hesitate.

 

[Ametheliana]

There was a stillness, if not momentary, that Hoshi took in just as Charbon absconded from her view into the swirling desert sands. She wanted to take a deep breath in and sigh it out, but the bitingly sulfuric air that cut into that moment of reflection. With a huff out, she turned around and surveyed what she could of the city as she drew nearer it, trying to form a plan for both her team and then for her own options on how to get clean oxygen before her stores depleted.

What she saw between the Kaiyo cutting into the city intermittently with its deadly pulses was the exchange of fire and a lone mecha ascending to the skies. It took a second to see it as Sif, shieldless but all the more threatening without it. With an impending grace, she watched Sif find a crow's nest of sorts above the battle as she heard the young soldier's callout over comms.

"I could use you looking out over Rio-chan's mecha. I'm going to access it whether Aratani's cleared it for combat or not." Hoshi directed over digital telepathy. "I'll need it to breathe soon, Aratani."

"I'm about done," Aratani responded in a voice that sounded like a confident lie.

"Good," Hoshi said, redirecting her focus to another budding soldier. In Hoshi's dismembered mecha, Rio looked shell-shocked and Hoshi relayed a message to her. "Following Sif to her position above the battle may be a wise decision with the rifle on my mech. Set it to precision automatic targeting and support us from up there and keep out of danger."

Most of the cannons were being destroyed, whether that be by Aiko or Molli. From inside the hollowed building, Molli's try at diplomatic words came too late. The mecha she had shot at were already damaged and with her marked placement of shots fired into their most vulnerable areas, two of the mecha seemed to falter as if at the end of their lives. The third wasn't so hurt, though, and jetted towards Molli. They were unable to reach her, though, as the cannon Molli had shot at had also expired. Except, unlike the mecha, it didn't just limply lose life. Instead, it exploded. At first just a roiling small black and pink ball, it escalated as it grew, consuming the broken mecha before enveloping the third as they pushed towards Molli. The heat wave pushed the Yamataian mecha out of the side of the building before it could decimate it as it had the Mishhuvurthyar ones.

Taking a charge at Aiko's charred and changed—but not mangled or impaired—mecha, the Killthyar swordsman was tired but not dispassionate. Both machines showed signs of the battle, a testament not just to the breadth of the assault but to each side's zeal for triumph over the other. As their swords met, it was obvious to Aiko that her opponent didn't just want to win this action and abscond with their prized Killthyar mecha. It was about much more to many NMX Neko. About superiority and pride.

The pair broke apart and the enemy mecha twirled its sword in hand. Their wrist slowed at each interval disjointedly, cutting jagged swirls through the dust and smoke reminiscent of the clearer lin it had cleaved during its initial charge moments earlier. The Killthyar bounded forward again, closing their chest to take a short series of quasi-flourished jabs rather than a long piercing blow as they had before. Something new became clear to Aiko as they made these movements that this mecha's pilot was fighting like a trained swordsman for power armor or perhaps out of it, but not for mecha battle. Their swift movements were stunted by the hulking machine they were now in.

After all, Aiko and her crew had months to train in these mecha while the NMX in theirs now were just picking them up for delivery to a Mishhuvurthyar base where they would have trained. With the Kaiyo cutting in when it had, the NMX hadn't gotten the opportunity to connect with the Killthyar machines and know how to best translate their movements into practice. Where a movement from this swordsmen would be graceful out of a mecha, it was almost ungainly and easily predictable in it.

 

[Megabirb]

In her borrowed mecha above the city Rio was still hesitating in open air. With the remaining shield wing placed over her pilot pod for protection, Rio was doing her best to fight down her rising level of fear. At least until Hoshi interrupted her thoughts by giving her new orders. Her Taisa's voice didn't necessarily help to calm her down, but it gave Rio something firm to focus on in her moment of hesitant drifting. Something to try and tamp down her fear to be dealt with later when she wasn't being actively shot at.

"R-Ryokai. Moving to Ignemar-Hei's position." Rio replied rather shakily as she began to ascend toward Sif's position high over the battlefield. While ascending, Rio did as Hoshi had suggested and changed the mecha's targeting system over to the automated precision mode, allowing the machine's fire control computer to take full control of the long rifle over from her.

 

[Gunhand4171]

After what seemed like an eternity, William got close to the Kaiyo crew's position. "That took forever..." The ID-SOL murmured as he rounded the corner and saw the carnage. "You guys have been busy." He added, scanning his radar for contacts. Locking onto the nearest Killthyar, his cannons began spinning up. "Target acquired. Firing!" He informed as the cannons began to belt out rounds.

 

[Gles]

There had been a faint hope that the Killthyar would see reason, and Molli could sleep soundly tonight with the knowledge that she avoided unnecessary bloodshed. Those feelings were in the young soldier's heart, while her thoughts were much more cynical: there was no way they'd step down after all the Star Army had done to them today. Sure enough, cynicism won out, and Molli counted herself lucky that she only had one tango left to handle; that is, until a massive explosion from the cannon threw her mecha out of the building as flames engulfed it. For a moment, Molli beheld the destruction she'd wreaked in stunned silence, before picking herself up and taking cover in order to listen to the squad's comms in peace.

As far as she could tell, Sif and Rio were working together from the sky, while William handled things from below. Aiko's reticence must have meant she was engaged in some manner of intense combat, while Hoshi was seemingly out in the desert on foot with low oxygen. Aratani was fixing up a transport for her, but there was no telling what could happen along the way.

"Taisa, y'need a hand? Will? Aiko-sama?" Molli sounded off as she checked her equipment. Nominal damage from the fire, but everything was still in working order. "Ah can be over t'ya in a whip," she said, in reference to her mecha's superior speed. She was probably the best suited to support whoever needed it as quickly as possible.

 

[Nameless]

"Copy that, I'll provide surveillance over the mecha," Sif responded to her captain, using her bird's eye view of the battlefield to see if anyone not on their side was making for the downed machine. With Rio being ordered to take to the skies with her, she'd also had to look out for anyone trying to take potshots at them, but with Aiko, Molli and now William putting pressure down below, it was not as likely to get shot at now. She was circling, somewhat randomizing her flight pattern by dropping and rising in altitude so the enemy couldn't draw a bead on her, but she'd be forced change tactics when she spotted two mechs breaking away, trying to be sneaky by using the rubble as cover and not using their thrusters so they didn't get illuminated. But that's likely going to change once they've reached open ground.

Intentionally or not, they were heading for Rio's mech, and thus was an immediate risk to two undefended people. "Rio, priority targets heading for Hoshi-sama's location! Take out the one just coming out of the city's edge, I'll take the other still in the city." Without missing a beat, she sent the targets over to Rio as Sif herself put her thrusters to full blast to dive bomb her target and getting the literal drop on it as she positioned herself behind the fleeing mech so she could tackle it to the ground.

Though it was more like she was using it as a surf board as the Shieldless Maiden adjusted its orientation to have both feet impact the back of the mech, the momentum of her descent dragging the enemy mech through the streets of rubble. As friction overcame the momentum, Sif had to jump off and flip her mech over so she could land on her feet and observe if the enemy still had the capability to fight, while also seeing if it dropped its weapon because without the shield and spear, she felt rather naked.

 

[Ametheliana]

Like the fluttering wings of a beetle, the rifle in Rio's hands vibtrated trivially before ceasing completely and then in a swift series of aether bursts began shooting on targets indiscriminately. Whereas many of the Kaiyo marksmen had sought joints and sensitive areas, the high powered mecha-grade rifle sought heads and, further, tracked them to shoot into them as many times as possible. With Hoshi's rifle in hand, the once trepidatious Neko had taken down one, then another Killthyar.

Back in the thick of action, William's cannons pelted into the enemy. Not one to keep taking hits, the Killthyar he was firing on took three long strides back and then jetted down a street. Another enemy opened fire from that same street a second later, firing their own aether rifle at the Nepleslian mecha as their comrade found cover behind them and prepared to shoot, as well.

Strafing along, Sif was avoiding enemy fire while also gauging the enemy formations. As she came to the unmanned mecha's defense, Sif battered into the enemy mecha like a wrestler in a steel cage match. As unarmed as one, too, she had to rely on her mecha's unbuilt defenses and wiles as the Killthyar teetered back up while its shoulder mounted guns swiveled and locked on to Ignemar-hei like two unblinking eyes that had only just noticed her but were unlikely to let her leave their sights until dead.

The target Sif had pointed out to Rio was one honing in on Aratani as she stood at the egress to Rio's mecha.

"She should be ready for you captain," Aratani said, preparing to shoot her Mindy aether rifle and pulse cannons on the incoming Killthyar. Despite the odds of her infantile position against the hulking mecha, she sounded determined as she went on, "Everything's back to operating conditions."

For her part in the exchange, Hoshi only nodded. Her lips were pressed tight together like they were sewn as she focused on not overusing her limited oxygen supply in the thirteenth hour. She gripped the metal of the mecha like it was solid ground after a long flight and snuggled into the opened pilot pod. As her volumetrics dropped and the pod filled with hemosynth her digital mind jumped to the desert and Charbon, eager to process the interaction. But she diverted her thoughts to the battle the Kaiyō still needed to win. She choked in a deep mouthful of hemo and forced it down her airway and into her lungs and she could feel it repairing whatever damage the sulfurous atmosphere of Urtullan had done in those minutes away.

"Help the Kaiyo pinpoint the NMX battlements and send the targets to Boss-san above us then stand clear," Hoshi directed Molli. Then to Aiko and her ship above said, "Chusa Ketsurui should get in contact with the independent Mishhuvurthyar that runs this planet and let him know in no unclear terms that the Star Army of Yamatai was merciful today but will not be if he chooses to work with his former brethren in the future."

As the repaired mecha came online and sensors lit up around her, she prepared to engage the mecha charging towards it, powering up the aether backpack cannon while swinging out the mecha's wrist. The blade there unfolded as she prepared for the imminent melee attack.

 

[Nameless]

"Of course, shoulder cannons," the neko sighed as she thought about how she could have used something like that on her mech right about now. Choosing to be more cautious, her aether thrusters gave her a burst of sideways speed to jump behind rubble before the Killthyar could get up, but with the firepower she was expecting, she didn't just take cover, she looped around the obstacle to try and catch the enemy off guard, doing much of the same maneuvers she did in the sky, albeit more constricted and about half as fast. The blasts from the cannons slowly chipped away at the buildings around their growing cloud of dust and debris, which gave her the bright idea of causing more of this destruction to further mask her presence as the buildings began to crumble.

Would they risk flying out of the dust and be in the crosshairs of the ship above, or the marksman sending down death from high up? With the help of the mecha's own systems, Sif was able to keep track of where the enemy was from where their cannons were firing from, and when she thought the time was right, she quickly braked, and let the cannon fire go ahead of her before it stopped as the enemy lost sight of her. But she wouldn't be missing for long as bursting out from behind the ruins of what could have been an office skyscraper, the Shieldless Maiden rushed towards the mech, its right elbow poised to strike downwards onto the left shoulder cannon. She had to take those weapons offline if she wanted to eliminate the Killthyar with any sense of urgency.

 

[Gles]

"Roger," Molli remarked, before taking a deep breath and kicking off of the ground. Several dozen feet in the air, Molli's mecha folded and flattened back into starship form, and its thrusters shot the tiny frame through the city. While her hands steered the mecha past buildings and rubble, Molli's cybernetics interfaced with its software, pulling up targetting programs.

With her pinky, Molli flipped a toggle that opened her communications to the Kaiyo's crew. "Sendin' th'co-ords!" she barked, as her eyes whirred in their sockets to find and automatically tag the entrenched Killthyar huddled in the city's abandoned buildings. She made several passes to ensure thoroughness, even at the risk of attracting enemy fire. The erratic whirring of Molli's eyes made her wince in pain as she blinked once -- and nearly tore her eyelids apart from the friction.

"Gnnggh! Stupid- Stupid mistake..." she hissed to herself as tears welled up and flicked all over her pod's screen.

 

[raz]

Surrounded by the close confines of what must have been some type of plaza among mid-rise buildings prior to the Mishhuvurthyar repurposing these ruins as cover for the present conflict, Aiko retreated her mecha from every blow thrown at her by the Killthyar swordsman, meeting each of the grizzled enemy pilot's strikes with parries from her own gargantuan katana. In the fiery arena strewn with the wreckage of cannon and Killthyar, the princess stepped back every time her foe closed in and allowed them to gain momentum against her with with those slow, projected attacks they were forced by necessity to make. And then Aiko halted her mecha, suddenly standing her ground.

For all the time she'd spent pulling back in the face of her enemy's onslaught, Aiko was studying the other pilot's movements—their routine and pattern of attack—before finally putting an end to it. At the last, the NMX Neko's sluggish Killthyar mecha hadn't been her undoing. But rather whatever sword training that pilot possessed, combined with their ferocious determination to win, opened them up for defeat. For what separated a skilled warrior from those a cut above was an ability to innovate in the heat of battle rather than fall back on drilled practice. This Killthyar's pilot had surely swung their sword to perfection a thousand times before, but Aiko was accustomed from her birth to making each of her strikes a first should she need to.

So when the Killthyar's sword came down for another slash, Aiko's mecha was too close for it to make contact as it had a dozen times over the past few minutes. With her mecha's free left gauntlet, the princess grasped upward and caught the Mishhu robot's sword-wielding forearm. She kicked away at the Killthyar's chest while keeping her grip solidly on the enemy's arm, twisting the mechanical limb as she sprayed her helmet mounted vulcan plasma guns at the staggered mech. The crimson Yamataian mobile suit was several scales larger than the Mishhu machine and could have torn the smaller mech's arm off completely, but Aiko only held on and twisted long enough for a few servos and mechanisms to fail and cause the Killthyar to drop its sword.

Using the next moment without pause, Aiko lunged her mecha forward and grabbed the Killthyar's head and crushed whatever optical sensors existed there. Inside the Mishhu cockpit, its pilot was left in darkness to the outside world as the Ketsurui warrior slashed into its legs to disable them and lopped off the Killthyar's still functioning arm. To the NMX Neko within, all structural integrity indicators showed disabled for a spilt second prior to the feeling of freefall and then a rumbling crash as her machine toppled utterly defeated onto Urtullan's devastated streets.

"Yes, Taisa," Aiko confirmed, already rerouting communications while she surveyed the fallen enemy robots around her. Amid the smoke and rubble, she spied a few Killthyar pilots who'd managed to eject with their lives skittering away into the shadows.

"Rob-san, patch me through to your superior," she said to the scientist who'd helped them once before today. The princess did not wait to continue her message, trusting that Englebert would already have her connected to the Mishhuvurthyar who administered this planet.

"That you have been permitted to continue existing here within the Yamatai Star Empire's space is an affront to everything our people have fought for, Grullyvushhgari," Aiko told him. "Now that we have cleaned up the fruits of your commerce, you would do well to shy from further dealings that may put the denizens of Urtullan and your stewardship over them at risk. Any further contact between this planet and your foul Mishhuvurthyar kin will not be tolerated. Even then, pray that Taisho Yui does not read the report on the events of this day and send me back with ten thousand legionary to pull apart the pathetic domain you have built here among our stars."

 

[Ametheliana]

"I'm not about to disagree with that," came the reply to Aiko. Supposedly it was the Mishhuvurthyar, though he spoke in Yamataigo fluently and with only a hint of the quintessential inflection that Umbral speakers couldn't hide. "I'm not about to speak on open comms too freely, but it's in your best interest to know we didn't want this deal as much as you. I'd say you're doing me a favor, but you just razed my new city... Is Yamatai going to be reimbursing these costs? You know, don't answer that, actually."

As if on cue, Kaiyo's main weapon splashed into parts of the battlefield, leaving saucers in the ground where mecha, cannons, and battlements once stood. Whatever small handful of mecha were still prepared to attack —whether mentally or mechanically— were no more.

"Communication cut," Boss said to Aiko. "In orbit, the Battle of Elysia has engaged a Mishhuvurthyar cargo vessel and some escorts, perhaps the one meant to pick up the Killthyar mecha. She has the situation with the ships well under control, but some battlepods have entered below orbit and she is requesting your team eliminate them."

"Detecting abnormal readings from within your pilot pod, Byrne-hei," Boss, the Kaiyo's MEGAMI said in the Nepleslian's communications. "Keep yourself operational at all costs. The battle's victory nears even without sacrifice on your part. Should I send our medic to assist you further? Or perhaps Aratani?"

Standing against the charging mecha, Hoshi blasted a shot of aether at it the moment the backpack cannon had reached its full charge. The unleashed energy potential in front of the enemy mecha's path was difficult to keep barreling through. They backed away, choosing to shoot with shoulder cannons rather than the melee they had planned. Hoshi shook out her arm and the blade there folded back into her forearm while the secondary guns began returning fire.

 

[Gles]

When the targets Molli marked blipped off the radar, the young soldier allowed herself to hover above the ruins of the city she and the rest of the crew had won. Molli's rapidly whirring eyes snapped to a stop, and she allowed herself a repose to lean back into the seat and rub her eyelids. "Ah'm fine-- ma'am," Molli said wearily, and she meant it, knowing still that it was luck that blinking was still possible. "Th'rook-- Rio-- worry 'bout her, alroigh'?" A flush of red filled her cheeks, and Molli double checked that her comms were one-way between herself and Boss. Some time ago, she wouldn't have cared so much about a complete stranger; it was strange to realize how much one had changed.

When new targets were pinged for the crew, Molli said up in her seat and smacked her face with both hands to psyche herself up. "Comin' in on y'six, Taisa!" Molli said over comms, and sure enough, the Nepleslian's frame had blazed a path to Hoshi's position in record time; shifting gracefully into bipedal form. She concentrated on the same tried and tested tactics -- pestering from a distance with her shotgun, and utilizing her superior mobility to evade and dart in and out with the aether katana.

 

[Gunhand4171]

William took cover just as Hoshi's new orders came through. "Read you loud and clear. I'll take up the fly swatter position." The ID-SOL replied, taking off for one of the clearings he passed on the way over.

Once he was set up, he scanned the skies for incoming battle pods. He was going to wait till they got closer, but once they were he'd light up the sky. "Time for some more fireworks."

 

[Megabirb]

The mecha fire control system that had been operating the long rifle of her borrowed mecha had done much to give time Rio steady herself before getting back into the fight, even if a bit late. Cutting the FCS's control of her rifle off Rio took aim below at the last of the Killthyar she could see, the one that she had been too late to engage before it had reached Hoshi and Aratani. Now it was time to make up for it as she opened fire on the enemy mecha from on high. Best to try and end her first mission on a high note.

 

[Nameless]

As her elbow came down on top of the shoulder cannon, she could see sparks fly as the metal on metal impact was accentuated by arks of electricity as the weapon system was brutally crushed and severed. The impact had made the Killthyar tip and stagger long enough for Sif to grab onto the other shoulder cannon with one hand and strike it off its platform with the other before bashing the now severed weapon into the head of the mech, further destroying the scrap.

The enemy mech was still powered, but it ceased to move. With a cautious push, the mech fell over without resistance. Had she killed the pilot or merely severed the central control from the rest of the machine with the damage she caused? Whatever the case may have been, it was no longer an immediate threat. Though to make sure it wouldn't have an easy time escaping, she flipped the mech over and ripped its back thrusters out.

The news of battle pods entering combat made Sif feel just a little bit dejected. She had very few options to engage those fighters aside from personally flying up to them and swatting them down like flies. She made a mental note to ask for a sidearm, in addition to shoulder cannons if the engineering team was still open to adding more modules to her mech. Maybe have drones of her own like Aiko's.

"Disabled enemy mech at my location. Pilot may be dead, unconscious or simply cut off from control... Location marked for retrieval or disposal."

After taking one last look at the disabled mech to make sure it remained still, her thrusters flared to life once more to engage the newer enemy. How quickly the tables have turned, now she'd be the one chasing enemies down.

 

[raz]

"Fleet support has identified a group of battlepods coming down from orbit," Aiko said, relaying Boss' information to the rest of the squad. "The Battle of Elysia requests we eliminate them. Shift attention to them when your sector is clear of any enemy mechs. Those new targets are capable of anti-starship payloads, so we cannot allow them to fire upon the surface. Let us not allow the Mishhuvurthyar to carve some small retaliation from their defeat here today."

That order given, the princess' carmine mecha blasted off skyward again. The exhaust from her turbo aether plasma thrusters kicked up dust and debris in the pit of ruined buildings she'd just fought amidst, fueling the little fires with swirling teal-white energies that hastened the city's collapse there. Full speed ahead, Aiko aimed to intercept the battlepods somewhere in Urtullan's exosphere or thermosphere and so pushed her mobile suit's engines as hot as they'd burn. To her machine's left hand, she summoned the great aether shock cannon back and trained it spaceward, and kept its right handed blade poised to slash at the enemy fighters.

Dressed in her Kirie or a Mindy, Aiko paid no concern to small craft like battlepods or space fighters. Power armors were able to easily outmaneuver the forward-facing guns on such ships, and she'd often enjoyed hopping from one cockpit to the next felling pilots with ease during the Battle of Glimmergold. But now in this mecha, itself about the size of the smallest Yamataian patrol ships, Aiko felt more a target for the battlepods than an unheeded whirlwind of destruction.

Indeed, with their powerful long range aether cannons, a few of the battlepods had already started to fire on her as she soared higher and higher toward them. Lazily at first, Aiko rolled her mecha to avoid the oncoming fire. As the distance closed between the princess and group of Mishhuvurthyar fighters, though, she was forced to make sharper thrust vectored evasions when the enemy weapons' transit time shortened. Every so often she'd loose a low powered pulse from her miniaturized shock cannon in reply, but conserved most of the weapon's power for when she passed through the enemy formation.

The moment came soon enough. Having just dodged a close blast, and weathering the battlepod's lighter rapid fire guns, Aiko barreled toward the enemy that'd fired it head-on. She forced the battlepod to flinch first, staying close enough with her trajectory to drag her mecha's mammoth katana through its hull with ease. Now behind the Mishhu squadron, Aiko aimed her aether shock cannon to the grouping that fell to her right and opened up with a wide spread intended to take a couple out at once. On the ground hundreds of kilometers below, it looked like a cone of lightning streak across the sky and then cast a static net that hung there burning in the upper atmosphere.

 

[Ametheliana]

Whatever barrage the enemy mecha was releasing on Hoshi, it was nothing compared to the combined efforts of the captain, Rio, and Molli. Its movements became jagged and harsh then sparks starting shooting from the joints, the leg's weapons, and finally its chest. Hoshi kicked off the ground, jettisoning away from the explosion likely to come.

The captain shared an appreciative, "Arigatō," while surveying the battlefield. As Aiko had noticed just earlier, Hoshi was now able to see the pilots of nonoperational mecha were fleeing with their lives, no longer attached to preserving the hard-fought Killthyar mecha. Sif's comm about the pilot inside of the mecha she had just rendered broken made Hoshi speak.

"Worry not of the Neko pilots," Hoshi said, her voice was like that of a wire recently plucked. Clearing her throat, she spoke in her normal cadence to add, "Instead divert yourselves to the enemy in the sky as our Ketsurui compatriot has requested and done herself. We've attended and abolished the mecha we were sent here to destroy and they won't be getting into the hands of the Mishhuvurthyar enemy to wreak the same havoc as we've seen today. That's because of our efforts, Kaiyō."

Hoshi arrived just as a battlepod popped out from the squadron as Aiko burst through it. The battlepod's two cleaved halves slowly lost momentum, drifting in Urtullan's upper atmosphere like flotsam. The squadron lit up with Ketsurui Aiko's powerful aether spread, tearing into two of the ten that had thwarted the large Izanagi-class battleship from which the battlepods could evade. Aganist the mecha, they had no such advantages, though. At the sight, Hoshi herself unleashed her own borrowed mecha's aether into the grouping.