RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 31: Wakusei

[Gles]

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.

 

[Nameless]

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.

 

[Megabirb]

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?"

 

[Gunhand4171]

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.

 

[raz]

"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.

 

[Ametheliana]

“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.

 

[Gunhand4171]

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. Ocassinaly, 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.

 

[Gles]

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 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.