RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 31: Wakusei

[raz]

An orange Mishhu aether bolt from one of the Killthyar caught Aiko's mecha in its left side skirt, shattering a hole in the zesuaium armor that hung there at its waist. Though she'd seen the enemy's attack coming and heard Hoshi's warning, there was little the princess could do but follow through with her slicing attack to fell the enemy mech she'd caught and take the oncoming volley where it landed. Just as the Killthyar protected their pilots within, Aiko's mobile suit had done its job just then. But the enemy had a vast advantage in number, so she knew their luck could only last so long.

Jettisoning the clutch of drone funnels from her backpack once again, Aiko did her best to evade the enemy's fire as she darted through the air. If nothing else, those gun pods would hopefully make more target signatures to confuse and draw the attention of her enemies' sensors. So she fanned them out and ordered them to return fire, tracking the Killthyar flanker while moving fast and low across the dunes to intercept it. From the distant domed metropolis, Aiko called upon the mammoth aether shock cannon she'd left there to soar high above Urtullan and prepare to fire.

"Steer yourself to land closer to the city if you are able, but bail out and regroup on Hoshi if you have lost control," Aiko advised to Rio. Part of the team's training had included dismounting in the event of catastrophic damage, and they'd even practiced continuing to fight with small arms or SLAM launchers in the event of an ejection. "You should be afforded some measure of safety when you clear your machine. One Nekovalkyrja flying away from them will not even register on their scanners."

With the flanking Killthyar closing in her sights, Aiko thrust her mecha's aether katana again. She aimed to drive it through the enemy's chest to knock out the pilot there quickly. Far in the skies over Urtullan, her cannon ascended quietly into the twilight atmosphere and trained on where the Mishhuvthyar robots had congregated. It would only get one shot before needing to cool down—and was required to return to Aiko's grasp for more power on top of that—so the princess didn't fire it just yet.

"Byrne-hei, are you able to disengage?" Aiko asked as she attempted to take care of the flanker. It was no matter if the Nepleslian soldier could not, it simply meant the princess would meet up with her next. "Incoming fire will be danger close to your position, and we may need to retrieve Yoshida-hei should she go down near the fighting."

 

[Ametheliana]

"Finally!" Koizumi Aratani's cracked into comms. "Took you long enough to need me help! Coming down from the Kaiyo to your position now! Hope you're okay, though, Yoshida-hei! Aiko-chusa's right, you're a sitting duck now!" As she spoke, the Shoi was swan-diving out of the Kaiyo's power armor bay with a hefty duffel bag in arm, honing in on the battlefield in order to repair Rio's mecha enough to at least withdraw it.

Whatever tumultuous places Molli had gone underground, it brought new life to the sandy dunes. Shooting out of the ground behind her was a four segmented beak followed by a ruddy cylinder of mevar core worm. It hadn't caught at her, but it did snap into a low-flying Killthyar nearby. The worm dragged the mecha back underground the moment a second one popped from the sand in an attack. The species on Urtullan had been fighting mecha so long in their city-destroying undertaking that seeing so many was like seeing a great banquet in their honor. Molli's similar ambush attack struck out at the enemy mecha, slicing into its leg like butter.

At William's position, before he could get to the side of any Killthyar mecha, another core worm popped up from the sandy ground at the edge of the dome meters from him. Laying its tubular body into the street, goo spurted from its beak and a stench-filled steam rose from the buildings it covered as they melted under the acidic ooze.

The Killthyar mecha that had positioned themselves at the end of their line of mecha struck out at Aiko with their own sword. It was a last ditch effort, though, as the Killthyar's arm fell mid-swing at the moment Aiko's blade had left the torso. Momentarily, nothing happened. Then a gush of torrent of orange fluid burst from the incision, spraying out dozens of meters in front of the decimated mecha.

The rest of the Killthyar kept shooting, either with their aether or with secondary guns that took less time to charge. Molli and Aiko remained their main targets, but as Hoshi shot out from her position, so too did they target at the Kaiyo shooters on the buildings.

"Rio, I'm falling back to behind this building for you to enter my pilot pod and get safe," Hoshi said to the Santo Hei with a failed mecha. Even as she spoke, she found a defensible position and began the process of opening up the pod and the mecha's chest moorings so that the Kaiyo's newest recruit could find refuge.

 

[Nameless]

Sif followed the killthyar that fell to her spear down to the ground, buying herself a moment to cool her thrusters as it would have been unfortunate if they gave out in the middle of the chase. But the rest was not meant to last so long as her HUD lit up with multiple new targets. She had fallen behind the others, which was a bad look for someone who was supposed to be at the front, soaking up the firepower brought against them. The volley from the killthyars lit up their section of the desert, and while the Shield Maiden was far enough away to not be in danger, she still had her shield hoisted in front of her.

The report that Rio had been hit sent Sif's mind to a slight panic. Given the number of enemy mechs and where they were, the stunt she had pulled before was not likely to work a second time, but looking to the fresh kill at her feet, she recalled the concern they had when they were in the hangars below. "Yamatai, give me strength. I hope this works." Putting her spear in her shield hand, she tore open the gash she put behind the mech and pulled out its core, softly humming with life. Scans say it was stable for now, but she wouldn't want to wait until it said otherwise.

With a burst of speed that kicked up what felt like a few metric tons of sand, the Shield Maiden took to the skies, aiming to get as high as she could all the while looking for the juiciest bunch of Killthyars. Once she felt she was close enough, she would take a breath and go on the comms saying, "Grenade out!" as she threw the humming core towards the center of the Killthyar formation and released her spear to follow its trajectory. She would then strafe down and to the left, her shield's projectors on full power to make her presence known as she shone brightly in the sky like a shooting star just so she could pull eyes towards her, and not the make-shift bomb that may or may not explode like she'd like it to.

Once the core was close enough to the enemy, the spear that followed it fired into it in an attempt to set it off. It was at a presumably safe distance, but Sif never seen how big a core explosion could be, and she was bracing for the fact that that spear wouldn't be back in her hands if the explosion did happen. It was okay though. A disarmed opponent was a lovely prey.