RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 6] - The Trounce of Tami

"Arin!" Vincent shouted unintelligibly over his headset radio. He was stunned at that particular moment. He was being shot at by Mishhu in this part of the world, and his girlfriend- he wasn't really denying it anymore- was being assaulted back at the ship. And here he was with his captain and the captain's company... What to do...

"Luca!" Vincent shouted as the loud hissing of a Ripper's main gun nearly drowned him out. "I'm gonna go back to the Big Bird; Mishhu hit us from there too!"

The lorath woman nodded, picking herself off the dirt and slinging her bag around her shoulder. She rolled her arm and shoulder, extending her wing on that side a bit. Feeling the fabric of her shirt ripped in the back between her wing slits, the woman grimaced as she could feel the strain from moving the bruised tissue. Apparently she hadn't escaped from her earlier encounter and her stunt just now as unharmed as she thought.

"So you do exist!" she commented with a grin, taking a hold of her dual chubbies and laying down some suppressive fire as she backed towards the group, following Luca's command to follow him. "I'm sorry, but a squiddy seems to have eaten my resume."

Luca could hear Arin screaming for help over radio - but he had to go through with his plan to get off Tami. Vincent could go over and defend.

"Vincent, Mitch, get to the Big Bird ASAP. I should be able to advance with Dad and Mel, and this new woman," He broadcast to his crew over radio, "It's time I told my plan. I'll advance to the town just ahead and see if I can knock out whatever keeping us here. On my signal, John will fly the Big Bird over - you'll pick me, Dad and our new addition up, and escape by going FTL from orbit."

He then charged forwards with lorath woman in tow. The town was about two hundred metres away, and could be seen through the thick bush.

Luca motioned Nyezeh to the GP-ORV Truck Mel was driving, and which Sebastian was manning a chaingun hastily stuck to the top of it. The passenger seat was free.

"G'day mate," Mel poked her head out of the truck and waved jovially, as though she'd seen a woman with wings before, "What's yer name?"
"Ain't never seen someone with wings before..." Sebastian observed, a wry smile under his helmet.

When Sebastian mentioned this, Luca was surprised. He'd only seen a couple of Lorath before, Mr. and Mrs. Merchant - responsible for supplying them with weapons and their WIND armours, but be hadn't thought of asking them about the culture - but that could wait! There was war to fight.
"Welcome aboard!" He said as he jumped onto the back tray, hanging on to the side of the truck with his plasma-spewing shotgun in one hand and his other arm wrapped around the guardrails.

"I'm coming to get you, you calamari bastards!" Luca shouted as the truck barrelled through the forest, ignoring the underbrush and swerving past the occasional tree. The small forest town was in sight.

BACK ON THE BIRD...
Valo's wrestling chokeslam towards the two Mishhu was able to pin them down with a sickening splat, but their tentacles surrounded him and begun stabbing him wildly with stimulants and depressants - but it didn't do much.

John regained what composure he could, and fired a hefty shot at the Mishhu focusing on Hitori - sending it unbalanced. He then continued to let out pulsed phase, de-braining the monstrosity, "You alright?" He asked as he stood next to her.
"Fine..." She admitted ashamedly as John pointed his GP-12 into the melee between Valo and the two mishhu - but didn't shoot.

Allison was surprised that Valo could wrestle the things, and unloaded regular NSP shots into them, melting them little by little, and avoiding Valo.
She was able to kill one of them, but the other one was content with wrestling Valo, as its tentacles continued to stab him with an innumerable amount of drugs, to no effect.
The screeching had stopped, allowing everyone's heads a moments respite and the ability to focus.

Valo looked up at Allison for a moment and nodded. "Please step back." He stated quickly. Releasing his grip on the dead creature, his hand pressed down on the Mishhu's torso and with his other still clamped around it's head he lifted it into the air above his head.

Anyone close could hear what sounded like extremely dense muscles tightening. and with a single movement, Valo attempted to rip the Mishhu in half.

Jim flashed through the forested landscape, racing back to the Big Bird with Robert behind him. Jim had quickly applied a splint to the wound and applied a local anesthetic to the area, if for nothing than keep him from yelling his head off behind him. Finally the large ship came into view, and, before even checking to make sure the area was clear, he hefted Robert over his shoulder and pelted to the infirmary.

Laying Robert down on one of the beds, Jim quickly did a once-over. Nothing else seemed to be wrong with the man, other than the broken bones, and those were a pretty easy, if a bit time-consuming fix. Grabbing a syringe, Jim sedated Robert, then attached some restraints, making sure that if the takeoff was a rough one, Robert wouldn't be hurt in it. Making sure that everything he could do was done, Jim grabbed the flechette launcher that he had left sitting by the doorway and ran towards the exit. On the way, he heard screaming and shots being fired from the area of the hold. Sprinting down the hallway, Jim encountered a scene that he should have heard before. Clearly his mind had been too much on fixing Robert to notice the invasion.

The last Misshu was being ripped apart by the strong arms of Valo. "Arin! John! Anna!" Jim shouted, "You guys alright?"

"My friends call my Nyezeh," the Lorath woman replied to the multiple requests, jumping into the empty passenger seat in the GP-ORV. Jolokia forwent the seatbelt in favor of switching the batteries out on her SmAR Fatboys for fresh ones on from her harness. It wasn't so much her ammo she was concerned with, but it was a good excuse to keep her back from being strapped up and rubbed against the seat. She stretched out her wounded leg, which, while still feeling stiff, made her feel good to stretch it out and not have her weight standing on it. "Hopefully I'm not the last person with wings you see," she told Sebastian with a grin as she clicked the fresh capacitors into place.

Leaning out the side of the vehicle and letting out a test spray from her gun into the foliage, Jolokia commented on Luca's professed plan, "We're going to drive this thing straight at them, blow some shit up, then drive into the bay of your ship and make the jump while still in atmo?" She laughed appreciatively, this was the sort of crazy stuff she really missed while working at Origin. "I have to say, Mister Pavone, you do not dissapoint." Of course, she hadn't fully cottoned to the fact that there were two Mister Pavone's here. To be fair, in all the excitement she had just missed Luca calling Sebastian 'Dad.'

"But since we're heading right at these bastards, you wouldn't by chance have any spare armor?" Jolokia asked, noting the Lorath-made WIND suits. Not that her Origin uniform would've protected her any better had it been in top condition, but just the way it was all scuffed, dirty and tore made it feel like it protected her that much less. Additionally, Lorath-made armor tended to be more generous in the back, giving support around the shoulders for those that had wings folded back there. Even though she'd had time to catch her breath, there was a nice bright sheen of sweat on her skin and her heavy breathing hadn't yet started to normalize. "I don't think this shirt can take much more," she added jokingly.

Vincent was off immediately after hearing the words "Vincent and Mitch". Hopping down from the back of the ORV and leaving his Deviance strapped to the roof, the ID-Sol took off running towards the Big Bird. Weaving through the trees, he always kept one eye focused behind him for any Mishhu interlopers.

ON THE BIRD...
Vincent and Mitch were able to drive up the Ramp of the Big Bird in due speed, thanks in large part to the path he'd cleared on the way there, and Mitch's acute driving skills, given that he was half-drunk.
They came screeching to a halt in the vehicle storage.

In the hold, the Mishhu tried to resist Valo's grapple, yet his massive hands were able to tear the Mishhu to shreds, one he put some effort into going through its tough shell.

"Hmm, someone's back," Anna observed as Mitch came charging in, removing his helmet
"Anna - your son is taking more than he can chew," He paused for a moment to reflect on his words, and realised: "Again."

"That should be all of them..." Hitori observed wryly, looking at all of the splattered Mishhu, covering her nose from the stench, "Unless..."
"Unless nothing - I'm closing up and waiting for Luca's word," John said as he stomped over to the cockpit and raised the ramps.

"By the maker..." Allison said, agape at Valo's feat of strength, "You're good at that..." He turned to Arin, "Where'd you get him?"

IN TOWN...
Luca, his father and Mel had made no admissions as the gates towards town were only a two-score metres away. It was going to be a swift attack - surprise them and destroy whatever they've installed.
Two unarmoured Mishhu standing guard out front were completely surprised.

"Here I am!" Luca bellowed as he and Sebastian gave them several new breathing holes. In the middle of the small village, Luca spotted a Mishhu structure of some sort had been set up.
Possibly as a beacon or rallying point. Or, as Luca thought, the one thing that has to be destroyed before he left. It was about five metres tall, and thirty metres away from him, and had a gulf of angry Mishhu, armoured and not, between him and his destination.

Civilians were strewn about, either egged by the Mishhu, or in several places at once. Some were still alive by inches, but still in poor shape. Some of them were in wonderment after seeing who'd just come charging in.

"Now, COME, GET SOME!!" He goaded the writhing crowd, of roughly fifty or so, half of them armoured. He then turned to what little crew he had left. Sebastian, Mel, and Nyezeh, "Fire at will,"

In the same breath, he got his Communicator out, called John back on the Big Bird with one word. The shortest sentence known to man:

"Go."

ON THE BIRD...
"That's him! Let's move, move! MOVE!" John barked over intercom as he very hastily started to get things working on the Vampire-Class, firing the engines up hastily and steadily moving up. As he did so, he had a bright idea.

"Vincent," He asked, glancing around cautiously before continuing, and smiling, "You any good with starship weapons? Mitch is right. Luca's gonna need backup."

"I got basic in weapons, but I wasn't exactly a precision shooter." Vincent grumbled quietly to himself, recalling his starship training. After a few quiet minutes, he sprinted off to the bridge. Taking his seat at his usual post, he fired up the console. Typing in a few commands, he took control of the weapons system.

"I've got weapons," he said over the ship's COMM. "Where do you want me to put this ordinance?"

"Ordinance?!" John questioned Vincent's train of thought, and wanted to get his train to make a quick stop at 'Common Sense', "We're not nuking the place while the others are down there - are we? I was thinking you man the anti-personnel weapons," He motioned to them on the keypad, "The Superconductor Mobile Turrets this thing has - If we use a Positron cannon we'll blow the place, the atmosphere AND our captain to bits! And ourselves."

A picture of the entire planet going boom coalesced in John's mind, he frowned heavily. The radar gave a beep, Luca was up ahead, just another thirty seconds. If they could hold out for that long, it'd be perfect.

BACK ON THE GROUND...
The fighting had gone on for only a minute at this point. Plasma, Aether and the occasional set of tentacles were flying left, right and centre. Luca and company were only able to dodge so many shots, wiggle their way out of so many grapples and evade naughty tentacles. One well-placed beam of aether hit the GP-ORV, stalling it and stopping it in its tracks.

"CRIPES!" Luca swore as he noticed the truck grind to a halt, with smoke billowing out of the hood, "That's gonna need some fixing..."
He and Sebastian showered Plasma on the offending Ripper, keeping true to the old adage of an eye for an eye.

Suddenly, the Mishhu present just stopped fighting. Completely, calmly and without a word. They then parted, allowing a path just big enough for a person to walk through. That was, provided they don't mind stepping on writhing tentacles, dead mishhu and shards of armour.

"Mr. Pavone, I knew you'd come back," A familiar voice sounded as a sleek female figure strode down the path, with a menacing grin, "You're just a persistent little bugger, aren't you?"

Luca recognised the voice instantly, half cringing, "...Saeko..."

Her figure came into view more clearly, showing she was wearing a Mindy Armour. Half of it had gone missing, completely ruined. Her right arm was regenerating steadily, "You just can't resist the lures and trappings of fortune, glory, heroism... no," Now her face could be seen clearly. Her neat white/blue ponytail had been torn up and transformed into a sick parody. Her eyes, which were a green colour had become bloodshot.
Her angular facial features were marred by many lacerations and sores that refused to heal, "Your sort just blunder into something and hope for the best - or take tips from films!" She cackled aloud.

"She's... mad," Sebastian observed, pointing a the mounted chaingun at her.
"Bugger me..." Mel mumbled, her eyes widening and frowning, releasing her grip on the wheel, "She's completely 'round the twist."
"The Mishhu have messed with your brain!" Luca observed out loud as he pulled out his HHG, levelling it with the woman and stepping forward cautiously.

"Messed? Messed?! I think not. I am now part of an inevitable force," She spoke slowly, spelling it out for the captain, "It was folly for me to resist, and it shall be for you and your poor followers on, too."
The other Mishhu who had cleared a path for her laughed in agreement and amusement.

"Saeko, I know you can hear me down there somewhere," Luca snarled, getting an aim right on her forehead and cocking the gun, "If you don't get that Mishhu bullshit out of your head right now," He took a deep breath, "I'm gonna do the job personally."

"Or me, sir." Without hesitating, Vincent switched control of the Superconductor Mobile Turrets to his bridge console and immediately put Saeko right in the middle of the reticle that had appeared on his screen. He looked down at his captain, then over at John. Switching his COMM to Luca off, he removed his helmet and turned towards John. "Luca's in trouble down there. They twisted up the Neko officer's mind down there, and she's got command of the Mishhu. Not to mention Luca's dressed in the same WIND armor as I am, and she has a Mindy."

He looked back to the console, his finger hovering over the "FIRE" command button, replacing his helmet and switching his COMM back on. "Captain," the hulking merc said, "I've got a clear shot at Saeko with the Big Bird's SMT units, and I can take her down in about thirty seconds unless you have a better plan." He sighed, keeping his hand perched over the "FIRE" button and watching patiently. Of course, he was internally conflicted about not just shooting the twisted Neko- factoring in his hatred of Nekovalkyrja as well- he was still going to wait on his captain's word. "I have all day here, sir."

Taking the opportunity during the introductions, Jolokia slapped fresh capacitors into her guns. "What's this, some crazy ex-girlfriend of yours, Captain?" the Lorath woman asked with a grin. Remembering what had happened to her earlier in the day, she warned, her eyes narrowing. "If I see a tentacle outta her, I'm shooting."

There was, however, still the matter of the hole in their truck. Jolokia briefly cast a glance over to Sebastian and Mel. "If'n one of you can get it running, I can drive," she said, before locking her eyes back on the regenerating neko in the Mindy. "Hell, even if you can't get it running, I might still be able to drive it." She chuckled, and added in a quieter, more serious tone, "It wouldn't be the first time." Of course, that time included going downhill and some explosives, but the ex-Orign employee failed to mention that to her new companions.

"Not quite," Luca replied to Nyezeh, "She's the woman who wanted me out of here in the first place - so this ain't surprising."
"I'll give it a shot..." Mel said warily as she got out of the truck, and popped the hood, looking through it and tutting. To her, it was most probably screwed. Maybe it'll keep running while it's turned on, but once the engine turns off, so does everything else.

Saeko put her left arm down to her side, unholstering an NSP and pointing it at Luca. She then appeared to be fighting herself as her arm was shaking heavily, and the weapon was slowly pointing towards her head - as though to commit suicide.
"I'm glad we're at an agreement," Luca said, lowering his gun, but a nagging feeling in the back of his head told him something wasn't quite right, so he didn't holster it.

"You're... you're..." She said with condolences, before grinning and suddenly snapping the weapon back in front of Luca, "WRONG!!" She pulled the trigger, and for Luca, life went in slow motion.

I thought so, Luca confirmed grimly as he tried to raise his weapon and dodge her incoming shot at the same time. Unsuccessful in both, the shot hitting him in the right shoulder. His armour absorbed some of it, but it penetrated and wounded him with a spray. It knocked him back, but lifting his left arm in the process - which had the HHG in it.
He pulled the trigger, and managed to blow her head off with one shot from the overpowered revolver.

"But oh-so right," Luca groaned as he tried to get up, accidentally putting his weight on his injured shoulder and falling down, trying to stem the bleeding.
He used his spare hand to call Vincent, "Fire at will, and get us outta here, Vinnie..."

Vincent had lots of targets. Mostly Unarmoured, but Armoured too - the ships weapons would tear through 'em.

"Affirmative." Vincent began typing the command for "fire at Will" as he observed multiple targeting reticles lighting up the scren. When he was done, he hit the big glowing "EXECUTE" button. A rain of SMT rounds began perforating the ground around Luca and crew mere seconds later, with Vincent as the driving force behind it.

No sooner did the neko find herself without a head from Luca's revolver, she also received some nice new breathing holes in her chest from Nyezeh's readied SMGs. "Damnit," she swore as jumped over into the empty driver's seat, stowing her guns on the carabiner clips on her belt. She bit back a cry of concern as the pressure of landing on her leg sent another shock of pain through her system. At least it was keeping her mind off of her bruised back and shoulder.

"If this thing's still got juice, then we're not dead yet. Back in the truck!" the Lorath yelled the final line to Mel as she shifted the GP-ORV into reverse. And that's when the sky started to rain energy blasts from Vincent in the Vampire. "Woo! Alright, let's get outta here!" she rallied as she looked back behind them, one hand still on the wheel, one on the gear stick and her foot ready to jam the accelerator.

In all the commotion, she hoped that her new Captain wasn't dead already. It had looked like he'd been winged, but she couldn't be sure. In any case, it was important to get him to a med bay as quickly as possible. A queasiness in her stomach told Jolokia that she too should probably seek medical attention soon as well. A small headache had formed right in the front of her forehead and she was still drenched in sweat. At this point it wasn't too hard to tell she was wearing mulberry colored undergarments under her white button-up shirt.

The Mishhu around Luca were being showered down with energetic death at Vincent's shooting, tearing through them, and the landscape.
A momentary thought passed through John's head as to how the survivors will get on, but the more pressing matter of the injured captain loomed over his head.

"Luca's been shot!" He radioed as he zoomed the camera into an image of him on the ground with a wound in his right shoulder, struggling to get up.
"My son!" Anna cried out, exasperated.
"Hmm, a dose of reality for him, eh?" Mitch confirmed sourly, "Maybe he wasn't cut out for fighting."
John shrugged, "Can't deny his leadership, or the opportunities that come his way, and fund us, too."
Mitch nodded. Good rebuttal. If it wasn't for his peculiar habit of getting into the most improbable of situations, we'd be broke, He thought to himself as he wandered away, "Yeah yeah..." He mumbled.

Sebastian stopped manning the chaingun, and lifted his son up onto the truck tray, laying him down and inspecting the wound.
"Up ya get," He said as he noticed, to his relief, Luca's Yamataian regeneration, although slow, was starting to seal the wound, "Does that teach you anything?"
"Don't trust nekos?" Luca smiled a little, moving his legs a little, "I never quite got the right vibe from her in the first place."
"Correct! If you'd trusted her fully you'd be dead by now..." Seb affirmed, nodding, "Now, we're going home."

"Uh, guys?" Mel gave the Father and Son a quick nudge from the passenger's seat, "As touchin' as the father-son dialogue routine is, we gotta get bloody going before the truck runs outta juice!!"
"Oh, right! Bugger! I was getting comfortable!" Luca gasped as he radioed John, "John, land in the middle of town, put the ramp down, and get us out of here."

"Where?" John said as he looked for a place to land with minimal collateral damage, "The immediate vicinity is pretty crowded."
"Land on that mishhu spire structure thingy over there," Luca pointed out, "It's not collateral."
"Aye." He said as he bought the Big Bird down onto the structure, toppling the quasi-organic beacon it with ease, and a small blast which marred the hull with some stains. The ramp came down, and it was only fifteen metres away.

"Nyezeh, let's go go go 'afore the Mishhu regroup!" Mel urged the new crew member on.

As soon as Jim heard that Luca had been shot, he rushed to the hatch with his box of medical supplies in hand. People with Yamataian bodies like Luca and himself needed very little medical treatment for such things like a gunshot wound, but all that regenerative powers couldn't make the pain go away. That was what local anesthetics were for.

15 meters away, that's all the runway she had. Nyezeh jammed down on the clutch and shifted the GP-ORV into drive as her other foot painfully hit the accelerator. The landing ramp was down, sure, but there was still the matter of everything between them and their goal. The Lorath behind the wheel of the Origin-made truck didn't care. Like a bat out of hell she gunned whatever was left in the vehicle and aimed at the big opening in the ship.

Oh yeah, this was the sort of tension she missed. Explosions going off, ships landing on buildings, crew in need of medical assistance that was available if they could just land the-- a wide grin of content was plastered across Jolokia's face as the world swam past as the 15 meters quickly became 10, then 5, then--

Then the truck shut down.

Right as the front tires hit ramp.

Luckily, inertia doesn't stop when the engine does and GP-ORV caught some air as the whole thing flew like a brick, bouncing off the ramp and sailing unceremoniously into the Big Bird's bay. Jolokia was holding her breath as the whole thing happened for her in slow motion. Only hen all four tires were on the ground and the vehicle was stopped in the bay did she let out all the air she was holding in her lungs. "We're in! We're in!" She yelled out, commanding no-one in particular. "Go! Go! Go! Go!"

All in all, Nyezeh liked her new job.

"Everyone aboard?" Vincent did a quick head-check from the CCTV in the hangar, confirming everyone was, in fact, aboard, before he hit one of the myriad buttons on the console in front of him and the boarding ramp sealed the Vampire-class up tighter than a drum. He continued operating the turrets mounted on the ship's exterior, holding the encroaching Mishhu hordes at bay with his determined fire.

"Alright, John!" Vincent said over his COMM. "Let's get this big ol' vulture in the air, turn and burn the hell outta here!"

As the GP-ORV crashed aboard the Big Bird, nearly smashing Jim against the wall, Jim rushed to Luca's side. Whipping open his medical kit, Jim shouted, "Luca, hold still for a minute so I can patch you up!"

With that, he grabbed a syringe from his kit, filled it from a small case, and injected it into Luca's shoulder. "That should keep it from hurting for a while, or from feeling it at all, really."

Jim was worried for Luca, eventually he was going to have more serious wounds than this scrape, something that might kill him one day. He hoped that day would never come.