Re: Episode 1: Party Crashers
Unfortunately for the two rouges, a burst of hot drive plasma, with an Ashigaru behind it, was coming through the door the opposite way. The frame, hovering a few inches off the ground, was heading right for the lead enemy, its fists curled up and ready to strike, the three fuel binders hinged down to streamline the frame in the station's atmosphere.
Yoshiko gave out a sharp "Eep!" as her face was caved in. Well, it wasn't her face technically, but it was close enough. Vision was restored just in the nick of time for her to see another frame burst onto the scene. Maybe I should have done that too, she pouted in thought. With Shinji's tactical data streaming in, Yoshiko quickly rotated her arm like a windmill, making sure she could compensate for the altered perception she had. She started to walk towards the enemy, and casually vented plasma nearby the cockpit of the semi-crippled Ashigaru frame, just until it's panicked movements were slowing down. "Half dead I hope. Now." She turned to the last standing rouge. Yoshiko's fist clenched. She gave a little smile at the screen. "This is going to be so much fun!"
A new voice crackled over the comms as the new Ashigaru smashed its palm into the still standing rouge's face, crushing it as he vented plasma from that palm. "Yoshiko, Shinji, we need to take this one alive. Go for it's binders and rip them off!"
The upright frame reeled, but the other frame kept it steady, standing up itself and punching the newcomer in the face, even harder, and giving it a sweeping kick, trying to knock it off balance so they could get around it.
Yoshiko bellowed in frustration at the headless Ashigaru. She missed. She missed a sitting target! How could she miss? Baka Shinji, she pouted mentally. Her perception was off, so something less...precise had to suffice. She reached out one arm to make sure she was on target; the other fired up and tried to melt the arm joint solid. "Hold still!"
Kelly smiled as his ashigaru jumped back from the punch, grabbing the attacking frame and tossing it over his frame's shoulder as he used the gravimetric engines to give him extra leverage. His mind raced as he tried to come up with the best possible plan, keying up the comm for Shinji and Yoshiko. "Tachibana, Inakura, change of plans. We let the one I just tossed get away, take care of this one here, and find out where the rat runs too."
She watched as her target was hurled away. Goddamn, he was mine! Orders were orders. Yoshiko's fist swung at the intact frame, trying to grind her fist into the joints and melt it. She hissed aloud as she attempted to reach the target. It felt so close, but she just couldn't reach it. Like those mirrors that say something's closer than it looked, except in reverse! Change of strategy. Yoshiko flared her engines and sailed at it, arms wide for a bear hug. "Give. Me. A hug!"
"Alright. But first, uhh, how'dya know ours names, sir?" Shinji asked, as the thrown frame scrambled and ran away, heading for the hills, so to speak. it made it to a landing bay and boarded a small ship, which took off quickly and made an FTL jump out of the system. it was gone in seconds, and suddenly, the station turned back to normal, the lighting turned on and everything seemed normal. Except of course for the frame which was suddenly shut down. whatever had been there had been doing some form of jamming, keeping Ged from communicating with the frames, but now the Atuan's computer locked up all the frames within his range. "Okay, no one else gets hurt. the guy trying to rough 'em up better come out and surrender or he's going to have a bad day."
"I'll answer your questions when we get back on the Atuan." Kelly, smiled as his Frame's cockpit opened. Climbing out of his seat and standing on the edge of hatch, Kelly pointed a ODM 10mm at it's cockpit hatch as he keyed up the Atuan's frequency; his green, black, and blue piloting suit protecting him from the dangers of the environment. "Ged, this is Ensign Williams. Can you open the cockpit of the remaining rouge Ashigaru?"
"Ensign Williams. Such a handsome name for a handsome man. I'll open it if you say the magic word" Ged joked. But the cockpit of the rogue frame opened up anyway, revealing a very angry looking woman with an SEP, which she pointed at her face. She smiled, a demonic smile that could only be on the face of someone who knew they were going to die. Before anyone could react, the pulled the trigger, a number of pulses slamming into her chin and face, causing it to boil and vaporize, deforming into a mashed pulp of bloody mess and cauterized wounds, with a few flashes of light coming out of the back of her skull. "Whoah! Holy shit!" Shinji roared over the comms at the sight.
It all stopped before she could really have fun. In reflection, it could have been worse. And better by that same logic. Maybe I should have just burned it's legs together, instead of wrestling...oh well. She relaxed in her seat, and looked over at Kelly. "You know, I hope they weren't smart enough to have suicide pills or a gun or something like that on them. I mean, it's common sense right?" before anyone could answer, she squeaked, "Sorry! I hope I didn't just Jinx us! Sorry, sorry!" This one had better not have taken the easy way out; Yoshiko already had a borderline tolerance of bittersweet things. Any further and she might flip. Nope. No luck. The woman blew her head off as Yoshiko watched. Here eye twitched. "F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!" she screeched, punctuating each word with a strike. As she calmed down, she spoke again, "Sorry." Though they couldn't see her from the inside, she was now blushing from embarrassment. "Umm. Ged? Did you, umm, get where that ship was going?" Please say yes!
Williams sighed as he returned his pistol to his quick-draw shoulder holster, patting the weapon as he sat back down in his cockpit's chair. "Well Ged, seems my plan didn't work. Are we clear to return to the Atuan?"
Ged answered Yoshiko first, by stating "Calm down, little miss. You couldn't help it. but I know which direction the ship headed off to, however, I doubt it would head straight for its destination, these people seem smarter than that." Simultaneously, Ged informed Kelly "Yes, you are clear to return to the Atuan once you've retreived the damaged frames. we need you three to carry the other three back. You each also need to pick up Arah, Linda, or Kensuke, and bring them with you. More security forces are doing crowd control and calming of the guests. I hope they got a good show."
Shinji huffed, turning his nearly undamaged frame around and heading for Meena's downed frame. It appeared she had been knocked unconscious. Arah walked up to his fram and climbed up his outstreched hand before mounting his frame's shoulder as Shinji dragged Meena's frame toward the Atuan.
"Well then, I guess I get the job of picking up Linda. Yoshiko, Shinji, you two get Arah and Kensuke." Williams reactivated his Ashigaru, speeding through the activation sequence as he grabbed the rogue frame, before urging his frame over to grab Linda.
"Yes Ged, yes Kelly." Yoshiko replied. She carefully walked her Ashigaru over, and made sure not to squish anyone as the hand went down. "Climb aboard, Sir." As Yoshiko's Ashigaru knelt over to pick up Kensuke, she couldn't help but glance at Zenny. Funny, what happened to his unit? "Zenny? Is it broken? Zenny? Uh oh..."
Ged spoke up over the Comms "Don't worry, Yoshiko. Zenny's unit was merely sabotaged. he is perfectly fine inside, but I would not want to be near him when his cockpit is pried open." Shinji laughed over the comms "'E deserves it. Guy's too cocky fer 'is own good." He continued towards the Atuan, dragging meena. "Juss, be careful, I can't get that lady outta my head. 'iss a bit much, yannow, 'snot waht I signed up for" Shinji kept rambling to himself as he walked.
Picking up Linda, Kelly opened his cockpit, reaching out to give her a hand inside. Letting her in, he closed the cockpit, he turned his frame, heading down to the Atuan. "Okay everyone, get back to the Atuan."
As her cockpit opened, Yoshiko shot her hand out and pulled Kensuke in. "Sit." She quickly had him do just that on her lap. Her feet, or Ashigaru 's, crunched as she walked back. Another table was destroyed, as well as all the expensive liqueur on it. "I hope I don't get my pay cut due to this..."
The six frames (three walking, three being dragged) made their way to the landing bay the Atuan was located in, and within a few minutes, had been mounted in their racks, and the pilots had been removed. after a while, the doors closed and the Atuan powered up, Arah giving the order to leave Hinoki pagoda and head towards Dawn station. Hopefully the tab on the repairs in the pagoda would not come out of her paycheck. "That would suck" she thought, as the small Mecha carrier burst into FTL towards origin's headquarters.
