RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 6.2] Sword Flash in Darkness - Unsheathed

"Ah, now that was a landing." Misaki thought to herself with a slight pang of glee. Welcome to the ground, Gambit. We'll move in by thruster, keep it low, and burn anything in our way. They know we're here, they know we are coming. Please make them regret that." The Chusa ordered coolly, smiling inside of her Mindy.

Kyoka-juni, I am moving forward with gambit. I want that prison cracked open yesterday. Do not give them more time to react, or execute their prisoners. She sent, before she flashed a go signal to Jacob and hefted her rifle up, launching the pods she brought with her, the XO waited for the squad of ground pounders to get off of the deck before following them, intent upon giving them the best cover possible while they burned a way to their target and back.

"Nothing like a break neck jump to get everyone woken up to the reality of a warzone." Thought the veteran, though noted not to surprise a new crew like that again, if she had the choice. Targeting information flooded through her support node, quickly bouncing between her system, the other two squads, the tenba, then to the Aeon herself through the wayward shuttle.

We are cutting a path forward to the prison, how soon until your squad is ready to breech? There are going to be plenty of enemies to neutralize there, but do not let your squad become comfortable on the way. She asked Kyoka.

::Shuttle::

Once the last of the troops shuffled out of the rear hatch Freyja shut it and brought the shuttle on a strafing run over the prison. She was hoping to take out the heavy weapons that were waiting to meet the troops. She instructed the AI to fire on the larger and more destructive targets on each of the passes. She also dedicated one of the turrets to fire on the walls nearest the troops so they would have an entrance way waiting for them.

Freyja knew it was going to be a bit before she would need to make the landing and pickup, but with every tick of the clock there was a chance of enemy air support for the prison.

Mikael was really wishing he had that M2A3 right now. But as such, once it was his turn to exit the screaming shuttle he simply held his breath after saying "Ah balls!!!". He did his best to slow down his short descent by putting putting full power to his suit's inertia redirection system and Auxiliary Gravimetric Engine.

But he still round up combat rolling to soften the landing. He "ate dirt" once his rolling came to quick end, laying face down. Real smooth....real f**king smooth. Mikael thought to himself.

He quickly activated his stealth armor and active camo as he got up and regrouped with the others.

Goddamnit, I miscalculated the speed. Kyoka groaned once she had recovered from the shock of landing.

To all the members of the away team, she sent,
One bump in the road wasn't going to put her back. It wasn't even a bump, so much a s a nudge in the wrong direction. Positive thinking.

She arrived first to the rendez-vous point, and she observed whatever damage had been done to the handful of enemy units.

Yoshiro regrouped with the Tsubei and the others and was ready for anything. The Tasha had followed him and seemed to be laughing about his landing from the transport but then again he admitted that the landing was a bit off. "Tsubei-Juni, what are your orders?" He asked just trying to take the edge off of his nervousness, which was evident in his fidgeting fingers.

Emiko aborted her attempts at injuring the distant NMX Flayer, and instead moved in Kyoka's shadow to the designated rendezvous point projected on her armors head's up display, as per her superiors instructions.

As they moved, Emiko issued furtive glances towards her power armors sensor feeds, confirming for herself the positions of the enemy that her suit was capable of detecting.

The Tenba provided tactical information from its vantage point to Misaki and the two squad leaders.

On the surface the two Flayer Tankettes were advancing to intercept the assault group. The tactical system identified two more flying just above the trees coming around to try and get the group in a pincer maneuver.

In the air three Type 30 Battlepods were streaking down their super heated surfaces leaving clearly visible contrails. Tactical then showed six missiles inbound targeting the Tenba.

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Jacob smiled when he heard Misaki's orders. That's what I like clear defined orders. "You heard the lady, Gambit, light them up, move out." He launched himself forward using his suits system to avoid annoyances like trees.

"Engaging lead Tankette. Okay you Cats fire on my target, M6-W2921's only, hold your missiles in reserve, we only have so many of them. Hooah." he called out to his squad as he squeezed the trigger a lance of plasma burning through brush to strike the enemy. Seven lances quickly followed behind his with return Hooahs, on the comm.

"We hit 'em fast and hard. No chances to react! We're cracking this place open NOW." Kyoka ordered, taking the Chusa's orders into her own. "Light them up like we're celebrating the end of the war!"

An incendiary round from her rifle propelled itself towards one of the flanking Flayers as she began making her way over to the compound. The Gauss cannon began firing itself at the others that stood in her way.

Saki and her Tasha was still making her way towards the regroup point. They landed a little more in the back after all. She could already see the Flayers though. She opened fire at them fro her Plasma rifle, when her AIES showed her that Tenba was in danger too. Three battlepods against a shuttle did not look like a fair fight.

Saki mentally linked with her AIES and send the targeting data on the lead Battlepod to her Tasha. "Ichigo-chan! I want you to fire at that Battlepod!" Saki commanded the mecha tank. She then kneeled down and continued with accurate and precise shots at the Flayer.

"TASHA, target those missiles with the Aether gatling and take those out now!" Yoshiro said as he fired at the Battlepods with his plasma rifle. He used the AIES to give the TASHA a firing solution on the missiles. "Damn those NMX! Trying to prey on someone else as we are distracted!" He shout angrily.

As soon as the battle pods popped up on her sensors, Freyja climbed for altitude, she didn't get very far when the missile lock alarm light up and started blaring, 'Six missiles damn...' she shoved the shuttle over again and dived for the deck, the shuttle's AI was still set to fire on the missiles, so all Freyja had to was fly and try to lose the missiles. once the ground grew in the view-screen she pulled up and hugged it as quick as she could. She knew that she had to get back into the fight and take out those battle pods or the ground operation was going to be screwed.

Orbit of Higaflan

It took some time for Kata'nova's scout to arrive, but when it did it did with a teal flash accompanied by an electrical dischrage that spread outward from the scout's hull.

The girl looked around her cockpit, to notice that she had come out just on the edge of the planet's gravity well but it wasn't this that got her attention. When she looked down at her sensor display she saw it light up with dozens of unknown pings, and these pings were 'everywhere'.

"Sensor's are picking up unknowns," she said and brought some additional power over to the sensor suite. "Can't identify. .hmm... more of my people perhaps? Maybe another evacuation transport actually did survive?" she asked herself. Before she was able to do much else she saw flashes of light in front of her cockpit and looked up to see more flashes coming from above. "Whoa!" she yelped and pulled her control stick hard to her left to avoid the incoming fire, she spun her scout around and then hit the engines, pushing the throttle to max.

"Whether they are my people or not, they are certainly NOT friendly!" she shouted and glanced over her shoulder at the strange looking fighters, they were mysterious to her, looking like a wing shaped craft with four cannons - two on each side and a brown like pattern to its hull.

Gambit's barrage riddled their tank with holes and it was soon dead and burning.

Freyja's evasive actions gave the Tenba more time to deal with the missiles, the weapons eliminated two of the in bound projectiles. Her RADAR showed a second wave of descending pods.

Saki's volley at one of the flanking flayers struck true piercing one of its legs. It returned fire with a shot from its cannonade, the shot impacted close enough to Saki that the shock from it sent her airborne. Meanwhile Ichigo-TASHA executed her orders, It trained its Aether Gatling and its 105mm gauss cannon at the outermost battle pod and fired. The shots sheared the starboard wing off the battlepod and it went careening off course. Ichigo whirled about and fired its twin machine guns at the Flayer.

Toshiro fired his plasma rifle at one of the other battlepods lancing the craft several times leaving it trailing smoke, while his TASHA targeted the remaining inbound missiles. It eliminated the the missiles.

Kyoka's incendiary engulfed the flanking flayer and the surrounding area in fire, while her gauss cannons slammed into one of the charging Flayer. The Flayer she shot with the grenade continued advancing, it fired a volley from its cannon, which landed near the center of her group. Dirt and dust was thrown into the air and the armors were peppered with plasma.

Yoshiro fired at the Flayers after confirming that the missiles were destroyed. When the Flayer fired its plasma weapon, Yoshiro grunted in surprise and turned to the Flayer "TASHA target the nearest Flayer and give it some fire. I'll help out with that." He said and sent targeting data again to the TASHA.

Locking on with his AIES he raised plasma rifle and fired three two round bursts after which he followed up with a gauss gun shot. The TASHA fired its Aether gatling gun and followed up with its regular machine guns. Let my aim be true! For my father, I shall pour the blood of my enemy upon the grounds of this foul place! He thought to himself.

"Concentrate fire on the Flayers, then wipe out the rest!" Kyoka ordered, turning all her attentions to the one she previously shot with a grenade. A second grenade was launched, this time an Airburst, as plasma and gauss-propelled rounds buried themselves into the armor of the advancing vehicle.

I've never fought one of these before. . . The neko thought.

Once the last of the missiles were taken care of, Freyja sent a message of thanks to the ground team that helped out. She pointed the nose of the shuttle up and at the battle pods and fired up the engines. AI started chiming up with the new targets, so she marked the battle pods as targets and told the AI to fire when it had a lock.

The speed that she flew at them left little time to think, she was moving on instinct more then thought. Once the shuttle blasted past the pods, she killed the power to the engines and used the thrusters to tip her over so that she faced them head on. She knew that the inertia would slow and she would start falling before to long but she hoped it would give the AI time to lock on at hit the pods.

"Enemies at the rally point, dispatch them." Misaki called as she and Gambit closed the gap flying deliriously quickly so low to the ground, while the grim fire of wore galloped alongside of them, and belched death from their weapons.

When they flashed on the HUD of the other units as the flayer continued to advance towards the other armor team, Misaki fired from above with her rifle, trying to put the flayer down as she brought gambit down to land at the rendezvous point.

"We need the LZ clear but start putting pressure on the prison, we can't waste time here!" The XO called to both squad leaders, promptly letting another burst of fire go from her rifle, while she fed possible landing vectors through to the tenba, she also calculated the fastest way to load POWs inside, hoping to the Empress' mercy their fast attack would not give the NMX time to execute them.

Keeping a stand-offish distance from the enemy so his stealth systems had a better chance of working, Mikael lit up on the cloest flayer to his team. At the same time, he took a stock of the battlefield by using the passive settings of his sensor unit. He also deploy one of his units to watch his rear.

Higaflan System

The Aeon and Integrity with their escorts was closing on another group of NMX warships. The Aeon's exterior was showing the effects of the battle. There were multiple scorch marks marring the green paint job, and there were several gashes in the hull. The port pylon had a gash that was venting plasma. Battlepods were darting about but in greatly reduced numbers since the successful use of the Aether wave of death attack.

On the bridge Katae worked with Gi as the group launched another wave of destructive energy at the lead enemy vessel. A follow up of torpedoes from the Urufu signaled the end of it and its neighbor. The bridge still had smoke present but the vent system was working on clearing.

"Keiko-Juni, bring us behind the Urufu, Usaga-Juni needs a few minutes to restore our shields. The cruisers can shield us for that time." she called out.

The Aeon smoothly shifted position so that it was now trailing the others.

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Gambit made short work of the second forward Flayer using the same concentration of firepower that they used to dispatch the first. Two of the squad's armors had been hit by the Flayer before its death, their armor displays were showing red. Jacob ordered those to the rear of the squad to let their shields recharge. The group started launching shots at the forces in front of the prison.

The TASHA engaged the Flayer firing all of its heavy weapons at it adding to the destructive forces unleashed by Kyoka. The Flayer succumbed to the assualt and exploded.

Higaflan System

Kata'nova pulled her scout hard to the left, listening to the groan of the crafts metal as she avoided several energy shots from a group of four battlepods that were trying very hard to kill her.

She spun the scout around and dove 'downward' in relation to the planet, where her eyes caught focus of a battle taking place between a number of decently sized ships. She couldn't tell from the distance, only thta the groups were battling one another. Two Nesha groups? Or is it just possible that I *DID* stumble into two alien races? she was jolted out of her thoughts when heard something hit her left wing and saw a damage indicator warning her of a hit, it wasn't a serious one, but enough to get her butt in gear.

The scout spun around, the pilot aiming the nose toward the planet. "If I can get to the planet and get below the clouds, or even into the clouds, I can better evade my attackers and possibly get out alive..."