RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 1: Amaya's Gate

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Masako grimaced as the situation turned for the worse. Taking this chance, the Warrant Officer reached back to attach the Plasma Rifle to her suit before continuing on. She also took a quick moment to fly by her LASR and grab it with her other hand. With a weapon in both hands now, the Raven-haired Neko maneuvered to get a better shot off at Eve and fired both weapons to suppress the NH-23.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Nyton:

The Black Knights suffered another casualty as Nyton went to draconian measures to destroy his newly acquired parasitic guest via the means of torching his lower abdomen with an anti-armor plasma weapon. The hellish heat shunted through the rent in the Phalanx's armor deeply calcinated Nyton's guts, causing so much peripheral damage that the Nepleslian went into shock.

Then he flatlined and no amount of medical assistance from the badly mauled Telemachus could save him from slipping away.

@Miyoko:

Miyoko's revealed of the cyberwarfare going on inbetween Hoshi's CIES and Eve herself that their Compact Integrated Eletronic Suite - even with all the processing power its central quantum computer could muster - was far outclassed by Eve's invasive attacks.

The way Hoshi seemed to be able to hold off her superior opponent was to blunt each powerful 'attacks' by casting aside the portion of herself that was getting invaded. The sequestering action - almost like a form of ablation - was what stopped Eve's hacking attempts to deeply penetrate the system and take it over at its more vital administrative portions.

Miyoko noticed Hoshi stopped her attempts to trap Eve in forcefields and instead accessed the now unmanned Vermillion to break its security lockouts.

@Kai:

With his Daisy leadened, there wasn't much mobility Kai could get out of it - not enough to climb out of tear in the hull he had been using for cover. Backing away further would bring him deeper into the imploded port crew compartment and outside the coverage of the atmospheric retention fields.

Grudgingly the Yamataian blindly removed his helmet and, after casting it aside, manually worked his power armor's torso section open before then wriggling out of it.

Question now was, what was he to do?

@ vs Eve:

Eve's deadly momentum slowed down. She had rampaged through their ranks, but the Black Knights were starting to pour down suppressive fire on her and - in spite of her potent precognition defense - Eve could only dodge.

Asher's and Kyou's attacks came from overhead while Masako rattled a scattered cone of firepower around Eve's general vicinity. The occasional errant attack fizzled against Surtur's energy barrier as Eve evaded, tumbled, tucked and rolled around the attacks stitching holes and smoking miniature craters in her vicinity.

Sometimes, Eve was offered tempting targets. The vulnerable and barely standing Tom she could take with a rush and a cleaving slice. The same went with opportunities to dash up and cut Kyou's helmet open; or to charge Asher and crush his crotch with an upward bludgeon from a swinged chain before opening him vertically with her kama; or to cartwheel next to Masako and use two battle tentacles to tear both her arms off before finishing her off with a crosscut from her war sickles.

But the problem with these opportunities were that they carried too many potential futures that ended with Eve struck by an errant bolt of plasma. Each opportunity to attack ended in its infancy. Kyou, Asher and Masako were too spread out, demanded too much commitment to easily attack one of them. The pair of zesuaium kamas were extremely lethal in her hands, but they were still only short-to-medium range weapons.

Eve's dodging gradually moved her away from inbetween the two Akumas and closer to Masako. The enemy NH-23 grew two new battle tentacles - one out from each flank - and used the sharpened tip of each to shred her dark velvet outfit off to leave her near-to-bare in small clothes. Just as Eve seemed about to pounce toward Masako, Mara's Fox shuttle pivoted around to have its nose point toward Eve before two lines of aether cut across the floor and over her position, forcing Eve to preemptively leap back the isntant before.

Flames and smoke rose from the carpet, and once the glare of the attack had subsided, Eve was nowhere to be seen.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"If it ain't one thing, it's anotha'." said Asher as he kept his rifle raised, as he boosted in reverse. Fighting something as dangerous as Eve had him on edge, the good kind of edge, the kind that imbued him with an unbeatable thrill. The Malifarian let loose a volley of chaff and flares to illuminate the vicinity, hoping to get some kind of silhouette or signature for his eyes or his leading indicator to lock on to. If he at least got something, he would start firing, but he kept moving to try and make himself a less-than-easy target.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

That hurt a lot! In retrospect maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Just hope I got all of it out before.....

Nyton's thought was cut short as he blanked out and died. His memory recorder continued to function though. It remained actively recording whatever ambient data his open vacant eyes and ears picked up.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou was following about the same thought process as Asher, moving further up and away as soon as she realized that Eve had disappeared. She followed suit, launching chaff and flares, reasoning the one would give them shadows, the other might give them outlines, or general movement at the least. That said, instead of readying her rifle again, she switched to her forearm weapons, setting them to heavy mode. She's not armored, might as well bomb the crap out of the area, and see what I hit. She would open fire the moment she even thought she saw something.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Cursing at the predicament, Masako launched a volley of her own Missile Avoidance counter-missiles in a wide-area cone in front of her. While this was going on, she would check both grenade launchers for the Plasma Rifle and LASR. Noting that they were both empty, she slid a SLEX grenade into her Plasma Rifle grenade launcher and an Incendiary grenade into her LASR's SLAG.

Now all Masako had to do was wait for any sign of the invisible NH-23 and hope she spotted Eve in time to do something about it.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari felt icy along her back. She only was watching now; she was beyond trying to feel for those who were dead or dying. The energy was not there. Too much fear. Too much uncertainty.

Where? Where had the demon gone? Her right hand drifted to her revolver. Where?

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The bleeding was slowing down, but it still came out at a rate which alarmed Tom. He was starting to get cold and was unsure whether his armor would save him or not.

But still, knowing that the blood was at least slowing down gave Tom an extra shot of willpower.

Nyton was dead, however, joining a list that was in danger of growing very rapidly if they didn't find Eve. He raised his shield to protect his front and used Kotori's downed Akuma to protect his back.

"S-she may try to...nngh... p-pick us off... o-one by one...." he said to the other Black Knights. "Cover... ea...chother... use your imaging array and skin vision... d-don't be caught off guard..."

He shifted on his invisibility and used his AIES's imaging array and tactical drones to try to locate Eve. He was not in any condition to take the point in the fight, but at least he could try to serve as eyes and protect the others.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The surroundings of the wardroom was reduced to a raging inferno as the Black Knights sought to flush Eve out of hiding, chaff flying around and man-made explosion rocking the deck.

Eve reemerged from stealth - her twin battle tentacles hanging limp and shredded - a scant few feet away from Masako and she charged in screaming. The NH-23, her hair singed and skin warping from burns, moved in too close for Masako to be able to efficiently use her rifle. Twin kamas flashed, seeking to plunge into Masako's flank... and missed.

Masako's surprise was about equal to Eve's shock. That had not been supposed to happen. Masako had flinched, but not nearly enough to avoid the blow - she had not expected it would be even possible to avoid an attack given Eve's apparent track record.

Eve's recovery was faster. She elbowed Masako so hard the Juni was sent flying, her chestplate bent and pain flaming in her upper torso as it felt like her sternum had cracked under the blow. As she hit the floor, blood - unbidden - was retched out from her mouth to splatter in the insides of her helmet.

Asher and Kyou rained fire over Eve's position now that she was revealed, but the enemy NH-23 kept on the move, leaping out of the haze of smoke engulfing the wardroom to hover right by Mara's shuttle, where she proceeded to grab it - the T4 Fox's shields incidentally briefly protecting Eve from attacks - and with an expert use of inertial manipulation she spun the shuttle around by the nose once before tossing it toward Asher.

"Eeeek!" Mara screamed as the giant projectile cut across the distance that had separated them at breakneck speed. For a split-second, Asher caught himself staring incredulously at the improvised projectile and too late reminded himself to dodge. Fortunately, he had the wit to try and shove his forearm shield into the shuttle as it collided into him, the smash breaking his left arm at the humerus but also knocking him out of the way before he could be crushed between it and a bulkhead.

He still dropped like a fly swatted out of the air but he was still alive - if very groggy - when he hit the floor. The shuttle clanged into the metal bulkhead in a thundering clamor before it also dropped, crashing a shy meter away from where he lay.

In the meantime, Eve had kept on the offensive, striking Kyou's power armor with the same cyberwarfare attack she had previously used on Kai. With Gunshin having less than ten seconds of life in her Daisy and forced into deciding either to save herself or keep attacking, Eve landed in a crouch 3 meters before Tom: the only power armored opponent that was still capable of truly standing up to her.

"Thrown kama to Tom's head in 0.83 second, followed by a ground somersault to 0.47 meter to the right side Vermillion's right foot actuator to obtain cover from Masako's grenades."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Oh not this shit aga--" went Asher as he raised his shield to parry the massive shuttle thrown towards him. His arm cracked with a sickening noise similar to a snapping tree branch, the limb forcing him out of the way and into the floor of the area. The next few seconds were blurry, as Asher nailed the floor with the shuttle crashing down next to him. Collision with shuttle and floor had dizzied him, but the searing pain of his arm quickly brought things back to perspective.

He looked up seeing Eve recovering from her relentless assault, his AIES reporting that Kyou's armor was going to self-destruct, Tom's biometrics reporting that he was in no condition to fight, and Masako had sustained a brutal hit right before he was sent flying. Despite having a shuttle thrown at him, he seemed to have been the best off, probably even better than Mara. So, why stay laying down? His friends were dying or about to and all he had was a measly broken arm in comparison. Besides, someone had to at least try to bend Eve over and spank the bitch out of her.

So, shortly after hitting the floor, Asher forced himself up with his good arm, and raised his rifle. The other, dangling arm felt as if someone was dipping liquid pain through his veins. Yet, that same pain was what was helping him focus, powering a mix of soldierly discipline and a reasonable hate, with an underlying sense of enjoyment in the battle. This was a straight head-to-head conflict, and a balanced fight to boot. The enemy was skilled enough to take all of them at once, but at the same time, had a glaring vulnerability that gave them the chance to kil--

"Thrown kama to Tom's head in 0.83 second, followed by a ground somersault to 0.47 meter to the right side Vermillion's right foot actuator to obtain cover from Masako's grenades."

Click to expand...

Wait what...? went Asher, the message ringing his head. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but suddenly, he felt somewhat knowing. It was all like a game, a dangerously demented game where someone was handing him a hint, and as Asher steadied his aim to fire on Eve's torso, the blissful enjoyment of it all steeped the strange mix of nerve responses in him. He wasn't going to give Eve the satisfaction of skewering Tom. In fact, he was going to pay her back for each and every time she smacked him around, for each comrade she killed, and most of all, for Asher's own bloodthirsty satisfaction. Whatever had given him a heads up, was about to get that same satisfaction.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

With his Daisy useless, and no real way to get out of the area without exposing himself, Kai found he could only do one thing in this situation: He grabbed the Plasma rifle. It only had 50 shots, as the Daisy could no longer power it, but it was better than nothing.

Bracing himself and the rifle on the rim of his cover, he pulled the trigger, following Eve as best he could. Searing pain ran from his fingers and onto his hands and forearms, as the superheating of the air around the plasma rifle caused his skin to blister and the synthetic fibers of his uniform to begin to discolor and shrink back from the plasma bursts. Kai's shoulder would feel the pain of the recoil from the rifle, which had been designed for PA use, not unarmored infantry use.

So this is why they don't recommend you do something like this... the Yamataian thought as the last few dying bursts of fire spewed from the barrel of the plasma rifle.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Coughing up blood was a new sensation to the Warrant Officer, but at least she wasn't dead. All though her chest was now on fire from the blunt force of the attack. Either way, Masako couldn't wait to recover. There wasn't enough time and that was especially true after she had received a telepathy signal from the Taisa.

Kotori said:

"Thrown kama to Tom's head in 0.83 second, followed by a ground somersault to 0.47 meter to the right side Vermillion's right foot actuator to obtain cover from Masako's grenades."

Click to expand...

"No if I can help it," Masako growled to herself as she lifted her Plasma Rifle and launched a SLEX grenade towards Tom's general direction. After all, the SLEX grenade wouldn't effect any armored target. The raven-haired Warrant Officer would then use her inertial flight to gain altitude and readied her LASR-SLAG. If the NH-23 tried to evade, Masako would be ready for her.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Eve was such a force of nature that, if Tom wasn't focused so deeply on his survival, he would have been awestruck by the sheer magnitude of the NH-23's power.

In the seconds that followed, he couldn't react fast enough to help his allies as they were buffeted around by Eve and her deadly kamas. When Eve struck Asher with the shuttle, however, that was something beyond imaginable. Were psionics this powerful?

The grip on his plasmas rifle tightened, a combination of his frustration at being unable to help, but also because he had lost a lot of blood, and the tingling feeling in his arms signaled the numbing of his senses.

Then Eve appeared right before him, Kama in hand.

Then...

"Thrown kama to Tom's head in 0.83 second, followed by a ground somersault to 0.47 meter to the right side Vermillion's right foot actuator to obtain cover from Masako's grenades."

Click to expand...

The information hit his brain like a sledgehammer. DUCK! The motion caused intense pain to pour down his side, but he ignored it as his mind screamed at him, his computerized brain calculating the location where Eve would land next.

AIM!

Eve was a Nekovalkyrja, slender, beautiful... and average height for a member of her species. Eve was extremely powerful, moreso than any other Nekovalkyrja, but she was STILL a Nekovalkyrja.

...

His plasma rifle drew a bead towards where her head would be.

FIRE!

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yelling in frustration, Kyou followed Kai's earlier example. She wouldn't do anyone any good dying at this time, and there was always a chance that she could still be of use somehow, though she hadn't yet figured out how. Throwing one of her now dead armor's capacitors at Eve's head seemed like a great start, but she might need those later, so Kyou refrained. For the moment. As it was, though, all she could do was duck behind her armor and start thinking of something she could do to be useful.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@ Vs. Eve:

Almost surreally, Tom saw Eve rear back her left hand prepare to perform the predicted kama throw that would kill him.

Kai's shots whizzed past Eve, the cumbersome weight of his rifle and the lack of AIES-supplies Fire Control System considerably hurting his accuracy. Fortunately, though, those shots proved glaringly bright distractions enough for Eve to not see Asher's shot coming.

The plasma bolt blossomed into a bright splash of white against the NH-23's midsection, burning away the few shreds of clothing she had left, liquifying her breasts and exposing the bones of her ribcage. Her flesh turned to a raw vivid red color from lower abdomen to right under her jaw with her skinfat sizzling audibly.

Eve survived.

She not only survived, but pressed on - Asher's attack not even slowing her down. With an open-mouthed snarl she threw her kama and tumbled for cover.

Tom ducked. The kama flew bare centimeters over his helmet, the tinkling of the attached chain the only telltale sound of its passage. His Daisy armor's knee armor smashed against the floor as he knelt and twisted his body around to track Eve's arrival point with his plasma rifle and he squeezed the trigger... though he didn't immediately see the results as Masako's SLEX grenade detonated and its roaring flames swept past him.

The firestorm pressed against the Raltean, and he found himself not quite as invulnerable as Masako had hoped as the heat seeped into the small slit Eve had worked into his M6's torso armor, cauterizing the raw wound beneath. The ensuing pain had Tom howl in agony as he curled up and fell to the floor.

Kyou, for her part, abandoned her disabled Daisy armor and took cover behind it just in the nick of time to partly shield herself against the same explosive shockwave. Her improvised cover and spontaneously formed forcefield barriers Hoshi created to shield her saved her, but her limbs had still been singed enough to feel tender.

By the time the deflagration abated, the half-dead Masako had changed position and was ready to launch her second grenade... only it no longer proved necessary.

Masako saw Eve's body lying on the floor, burning flames stripping black withering flesh off her skeleton - one not made of actual bones, but incredibly enough of pure zesuaium. Despite that unique endoskeleton, Tom's plasma attack had proven a decisive one, chewing through half of the zesuaium skull and thoroughly obliterating Eve's brains.

The battle was over. Eve was dead.

@Miyoko:

Around the moment Masako's SLEX grenade had exploded, Miyoko noticed dramatic changes in Eve's cyberwarfare attack against Hoshi.

At first she didn't know what to make of it. Then as the change went on, she realized that Eve's PANTHEON presence had entirely lost its momentum as it - to all appearances - began to devour itself.

After a few more seconds, the cyberpresence was gone and Hoshi recovered, self-restoring itself from the damage done.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom was unaware of the success of the team's attack. His world right now was one of overwhelming pain as his vocal chords strained--then broke-- in their efforts to express the hellish agony that ripped through his body.

His body quivered helplessly on the ground as he whimpered like an injured dog.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Asher cursed himself as he saw Eve take his plasma shot, and survive. What the fuck, would think a normal person, but Asher? "Shit, if I wasn't tryin' t'murder this bitch, I think I'd be in love." thought the man before he hefted his rifle once again, trying to aim, before watching Eve getting killed through the projected sights of his rifle.

For a moment, it had to sink in, the opponent they had nearly been slaughtered by, just got slaughtered. The almighty, evil, tyrannical, and all out kama-weilding-psycho Eve was dead, and they killed her. It was like shooting the biggest buck in the forest, only with weapons designed to tear through ship-grade armor. Still, Asher didn't feel too restful as of yet, as if he hadn't properly gotten his fill of bloodshed.

He was still battered, dented, and broken, but he wasn't dead, and that meant he could still fight. As it was said before the whole battle, Asher's life was still an illegal one. If the brass of the Miharu felt going by the book, it meant his death, despite what he had done that day. Then again, if they went by the book in the first place, he wouldn't be there. Asher shook his head, the dizziness of his landing was wearing off with only the excessive thought to replace that dizziness. He decided to go back to doing what he did best, acting.

He looked around, surveying the damage, everyone was hurt rather badly, but anyone who was dead was accounted for, except for Mara. The Malifarian turned around to look at the shuttle that landed behind him, it's distance a somewhat thrilling reminder of how close to death he was. With a short boost of his thrusters, he jumped onto the shuttle, banging on the exterior hull. If she didn't respond, he'd check inside, and if she was dead, he'd go help someone else.

"Mara! You okay in there?" said Asher as he banged against the hull with his one good hand. "Mara!"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Somehow," Mara telepathically replied to Asher, one four-fingered hand waving to him through the shuttle's transparent durandium viewports. "I'll tell you more when I figure out if the seatbelts are done trying to kill me or not. Ow!"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Alright, let me know if y'need some help. I'm gunna go see t'tha' otha's." replied Asher, tapping the hull twice before turning away to look at the rest of the living people. "Ey! Anyone who needs a pair a'--... A hand t'help'em out, cough up some blood or wiggle a foot." grunted the Malifarian.

With that, the Hei looked over at the naked, and slightly cooked Kyou. "Hey Gunny, lookin' good, by the way." mused Asher, with the sort of perverse tone that confirmed Kyou's accusations with their previous conversation.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou, more than slightly breathless to go with her very excessive levels of tanning, sneered at Asher, wishing she had a shoe sitting nearby or something. That it wouldn't have any real effect didn't concern her, it was just the gesture. "Help the others first, lecher. I'm just a little over-cooked."