RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Uh huh." She replied to Shinji. "But, I think Mister Stiff there has a toy we don't, so we might not need to." Yoshiko commented. The Ex-Neko then giggled a little when he addressed her the way he did. "My mommy used to call me that. Said something about a video game character too." Yoshiko recalled vague descriptions of this other 'Yoshi' and just before she drifted off in thought, she heard Taela's voice. Yes. Neko were made for war; some people actually forgot that. Hell, even she did from time to time. And when she finally got inside her own Ashigaru, her lip was curled in sorrow; Yoshiko didn't have one mom, she had two. And one was gone for good. She replied with a nonchalance, "Yeah. I'll watch your ass for you Taela." The tone of voice left much open for interpretation.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

A Wait of an Hour or so later, the Atuan started buzzing with something. it was called a Klaxon horn, and it was annoying. It's purpose, not to annoy as it did, but to warn everyone aboard that the ship would be transitioning back into realspace, and allowing them to make their quick drop through the Atmosphere of Kennewes and onto the target for investigation.

the ship began to shake slightly, and then suddenly, the bridge crew got quite a surprise. Pulled out of Hyperspace a bit early, the Atuan was set upon by a few Mishhuvurthyar ships, something that was not a good thing. Using the thrusters at full power, the tiny ship began to rattle and the Frame team would be very confused as to what was going on outside. Suddenly, Arah's voice could be heard over their comms. "Sorry, But we'll have to hot-drop you from low orbit. We can't stick around for very long, and need to be sure to be away from you guys when everything hits the fan. Well. When it hits the fan again." The ship rocked, and some tools began flying around, and the hissing rush of the atmosphere being drawn out of the Mecha bays and into holding tanks, told them that it would be a very interesting ride.

Fourty-five very bumpy seconds later, the armored bay doors on either side of the ship opened, their edges glowing white-hot from the friction of microatmoshpere. It was obvious that this was where they dropped, as the restraints released and allowed the Frames to move. Shinji, Meena, and Unit 05 made their way out immediately, dropping through the atmosphere and down towards the swampy Planet below. Hopefully everyone else would get out along with them.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

This. . . is inconvenient. Taela thought as the Frame activated and leapt out of the side of the ship. A few stray shots nicked the outer shell, but nothing major. As the colossal machine began to fall, she began to wonder whether it was just bad luck that her first time in a Frame was not only a combat mission, but also with experimental weaponry and ejecting out in a hotzone. But, she staved this thought off to check on her systems. It had appeared that all the weapons were synced properly according to her computers. Now, all she could do was wait. . ..

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

....And wait. As Yoshiko fell through the atmosphere, she decided to let out a happy "Wheee!", if only to try and pass some of the time as she fell at several hundred miles per hour, streaking through the atmosphere and surrounded by who knew how many tons of government-contracted or sponsored killing-machine to-be. 'Oh wait! I know the answer to that! What was it, what was it...ah! About 31 tons of killing machine!' the absent minded girl thought to herself. Yoshiko wiggled her toes and vaguely thought of what they were doing. 'Just land and kill anything that shoots back I guess.' Frankly, she probably didn't even remember much, or anything of, Kelly's briefing. It was safe to assume she was in for a surprise.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Even though Kelly's Asura was lighter than the Ashigaru's of his squad mates, he was falling faster than them, accelerating towards the ground at a constant rate. As the cloth tarp that had been covering the frame was burned away by the heat of atmospheric re-entry, the rest of the pilots could clearly see why, using both their MK1 Eyeballs and sensor suites: Kelly had activated the frame's IAPD, and was rocketing downward towards the target location.

Inside the war machine's cockpit, its pilot smiled as he ran over the list of weapons available to him, deciding to open up with the micro missile pods as soon as he could. Amused, he thought to himself about the person who had given this frame to him. "Well, it seems that Javier really did deliver on his promise to give me something good. Lets just hope this has some substance to back up its flash.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

The six frames dropped through the atmosphere, five at terminal velocity, but one just a bit faster, straight down over their target. After what seemed way too much time but wasn't actually that long, warnings started popping up telling the pilots to begin taking action or the suit would be forced to do so for them. They could see, a few miles from their landing area, a mid-sized compound that seemed innocent enough for normal situations, but was currently being used to hold up against a Mishhu attack at the moment. The six frames would find themselves dropping into a very hot zone, as AA fire finally began to make its way up towards the Origin machines.

"Ah, Shit, I think we gotta do somethin' mor'en fall now" Shinji stated over the comms, igniting his boosters and thrusters and reorienting his frame to land a bit more softly on its legs, while maneuvering to avoid the AA fire, and using his frame's sensors to start picking out targets, the Telemetry of which he relayed to everyone else's suits.

Meena was a bit quicker than Shinji had been, and a little bit more aggressive in her defending herself, firing her UPL's and her Autocannon at targets of opportunity, mostly whatever she noticed firing at her.

The last Frame followed Meena's lead and began firing upon the Mushhu vehicles and soldiers down below as their descent came to a rapid close towards the soft swampy ground.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Whoo! Get some!" she cried out. Yoshiko raised the shield in front of her, angling it in synch with her thrusters in an attempt to partially steer herself and augment her maneuverability. She darted to and fro, firing off the best shot she could muster on such short notice. However, her attention wasn't on actually hitting anything, but to keep their heads down and stay alive; she could put her foot up someone's ass when she was on firm ground, and not before. "Hehe." And then she took notice; Kelly was apparently getting the best toys out of all of them, and he was in the lead. 'No fair! Huh. On the other hand, he is at the front.' Yoshiko would ponder the implications of that, but was too busy just dodging any incoming fire and dishing it back.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

The Carbine equipped to Taela's mecha was set to normal-fire on the descent down, the Neko aiming to attack any clear targets as thrusters activated. However, this plan was abandoned for a much more worrysome (For the enemy) spray of surpressing fire - once the gun was switched to rapid-fire, of course. She didn't forget her shield either, although she angled it downwards for the sake of covering more of her Frame.

"Kelly-sama," She called into her communicator, "How shall we form up once we've landed?"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Kelly grunted as his frame dodged incoming fire from the ground, slowing its descent and dashing sideways to avoid what looked to be a very powerful, very deadly energy blast, originating from a grounded NMX Landing Craft that had disgorged a mass of four light tanks, three tankettes, and a single battle buggy, along with what seemed to be a platoon of shocktroopers, light infantry, and a squad of Rippers. The shocktroopers and infantry had already begun to storm the HiGA compound with support from the battle buggy and tankettes, whilst the light tanks of the assault force had taken notice of the new arrivals. The Light Tanks moved in, trying to use their speed to surround and bombard the landed frames, heavy plasma cannons firing into the general area of the green-black-blue machines as the six rippers used the bombardment to move in close, 50mm gauss rounds impacting the shields of Taela's, Yoshiko's, and Kelly's frames, warning alarms going off in their cockpits as their frame's sensors detected the powering up of aetheric weaponry. Luckily, for the pilots, it appears that the SMDION fleet had managed to do some damage to the landing craft, knocking out its shields, atleast for the moment.


"Right, then. Taela, Yoshiko! Take up evasive manuevers, and come with me, we'll try to do something about that landing craft, its bay door is still open! Oyu, get to the compound and help take out that infantry force! Shinji, Meena! Take care of these tanks and rippers!" The dark nepleslian's Asura sprang into action, the thermonuclear hover jet in its lower legs allowing it to break through the NMX encirclement, side strafing and zig-zaging around point defense fire from the landing craft, the shielding on his frame holding up for now. "Well, ladies? Take out these turrets while I have them distracted!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Sir!" Shinji an Meena called out, almost in Unison. Standing next to each other, they allowed their Point-defense weapons to auto-fire at the Ripper frames, using the Frame's AI to aim, while taking their own aim at the light tanks. Shinji took carefully aimed shots, trying to do the most damage he possibly could per shot, while Meena used the saturation method of spewing fire at the approaching enemies, in hopes of slowing them down.

Oyu Boosted his frame back into the sky, Making himself a slightly easier target, but also making his movement far quicker than it had been before. He landed sever hundred yards away, on top of some of the cloned infantry, crushing them instantly, before taking off again closer to the HiGA compound. Unit 04 took a few glancing blows from the tankette's and fired back with its defensive weaponry before making a third jump towards the compound.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

The moment Kelly pulled off his fancy tricks and got everyone's attention was the moment Yoshiko opened fire on the two forward turrets from the cover of the dense forest. Hopefully, her carbine and point defense weapons would melt the barrels and render them useless. 'Oh boy, I hope the other two will keep those tanks and stuff off of us!' she thought. "Yoshiko, moving up!" she called out. They were already in the front, but unless they got close enough, the other side turrets would notice and pick them off. 'Here, have some more!'

Her carbine barked enthusiastically.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Oyu continued to jump, boosting his frame to its Limits as he braved all sorts of fire to arrive at the HiGA compound before the Mishhu did. The Yamataian knew this was probably a suicide mission, but figured that the Ashigaru was big enough to protect him. A few bounds and leaps, aided by thrusters, put the Frame pilot inside the compound.

Stopping his jumping cycle, unit 04 sank a little into the muddy coutryard within the walls of the compound, behind the defenders, who, after shooting at him uselessly with personnel weapons for a few moments, realized he wasn't trying to kill them. "I've made it to the compound. There are a few survivors defending the perimeter, but none of them appear to have HiGA uniforms on, and they seem to be preoccupied by the attack from the Mishhu." Oyu began a scan of the area, finding only one thing of note, the power signature of an older-style computer core, which was quickly linked to and identified as the databank. Oyu set Unit 04 to pull the raw data, and then kneeled the frame, getting out of it, and taking out a Fatboy and an ODM 10mm, sticking the 10mm into a holster and hefting the Fatboy.

Oyu jumped down from his frame and made his way towards the wall to help defend the compound, as well as talk to all the people there that he could.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Louis McGarland, alias "Lucien", was among the survivors in the area. He wasn't affiliated with HiGA, as a matter of fact, he was shipped to the headquarters for a filming location for the soap he was supposed to be working on. That was about a few hours ago, before the Mishhu rocked up and caused chaos.

The soap opera is permanently delayed, and would not be returning after the break.

He was able to shoot down a couple of unarmoured Mishhu with his home made brand of ammunition, the sort that violate a few archaic laws of war - before having to run for it. He knew that he was in mortal danger.

Needless to say, he was one of the few survivors of the calamity, and his instincts and parental training told him that he wasn't going to have such luck for long. He crept out of cover with both of his pistols drawn, looking over at Oyu's Frame, and the Origin operative busying himself with the others, some of them the former film crew, others were just there.

"Heh, mate," Lucien said under his breath as he hid in the shadow of the Frame and got a good look at it, staring at the sun, "First rule 'o life - watch yer back 'n yer gear, heh heh..."
He was sorely tempted to just nick the mech and run, but he considered for a moment: What would that say about him if he got off of this rock alive?

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Acknowledged." Taela replied to Kelly, immediately changing her Frame's current course to join Yoshiko, who had taken the lead in terms of action. quickly getting the system to calibrate the targets, she switched her gun to normal fire over rapid-fire, considering that she wanted accuracy over speed. Then, the Neko proceeded to shoot at the turrets Yoshi missed or looked like they were about to shoot back. "Keep up the pressure. We mustn't give them time for a counterattack." She encouraged her comrade,

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

It wasn't long before Oyu made his way to the wall, coming up to a small group of the defenders, and striking up a conversation with them. His Fatboy spat laser fire, shooting through a peep hole and towards the cloned Neko soldiers on the other side of the fence. He ignored Lucien and his Ashigaru, not thinking that anyone would be there.

The Ashigaru sat there, Open, mostly on, ready to go. All Lucien had to do was hop in, and he could be out of there. Or he could go to the wall and help defend the base proper-like. It was up to the actor/mercenary.

****

Shinji and Meenabegan to move backwards from their position, as the enemy tanks began to encircle and try to flank them, their weapons all firing at full "Uhh, Yannow, I think we got the bad end a the stick, yannow?" Shinji quipped to Meena, who only grunted a bit in reply, firing as much as she could, taking out a couple of the tanks as they watched their shield bubbles quickly going down towards Zero. "We need some help here, guys" Meena opened up over the comms.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Kelly sighed, his Asura dodging an oncoming blast of defensive fire from the landing craft by rocketing skywards, giving its pilot a better vantage point to view the battlefield whilst it dodged more fire from the NMX ship. Most importantly, though, being so high up, as well as the fact that his IAPDs were at full aether draw, made him a fairly attractive target for the Landing Ship's guns, causing all of the guns that could angle to fire at him to start throwing bolts of deadly energy at the nimble mecha. Of course, this only made things easier for Yoshiko and Taela. "Yoshiko, Taela, try to shoot off its turrets! Lets see if being disarmed will do anything to calm them down." On queue with his orders, the nepleslian fired a 20 missile salvo of micro-EMP missiles at the top of the landing craft, and then dodged away from more incoming fire. Kelly wasn't fast enough in evading, however, and some of the massed AA fire hit his shields like a brick, depleting them by 25%.

Luckily, though, all this high-altitude dodging gave Kelly a good sensor view of Shinji and Meena, and their troubles with the tanks. Troubles that were mostly brought on, he could see, by them not using all their weapons. "Shinji, Meena, what the hell are you two doing? Don't try to use your rifles or carbines to kill the tanks, fall back to a distance and use your Armoires to aim for the vulnerable tops! They were made for this kind of work, and you have them, so put them to use now!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Lucien was half wondering why Oyu wasn't using his mech to defend the wall. The small contingent of defenders, were armed with smaller and more conventional weapons. Ranging from pistols to the offhand assault rifle. Overall, a modest armament at best.
Whether or not they were a good shot with said weapons was entirely up in the air.

Lucien looked at the wall, and noted that those cloned NMX Neko soldiers were getting a bit too bitey for their own good, and were giving what little defenders were there a headache.

"...well damned if ah don't," He mumbled as he clambered up the Frame and sat down in the spherical cockpit and strapped himself in. He then realised that there were no controls to speak of, except for the orbs on the hand rests.
He put his hands down on them, and with a thought, he inadvertently closed the cockpit and begun to power up. The semitransparent interface on his screen showed that there were lots of Nekovalkyrja just waiting to tear the defenders to shreds, even clambering over each other to get a piece of the action.

"It's showtoime," Lucien smiled in his native accent as he took his baby steps and got familiar with the mind link interface, swiftly realising that he had some serious guns packing.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

As Shinji and Meena called for backup, Yoshiko put on an expression of absolute confusion, "But they're so small!" the ex-neko spoke to herself aloud. She gave a brief "Hmph!" as the Ashigaru turned and fired a pair of missiles at a tank, then quickly fled as enemy fire rained down on her revealed position. Her shields flared as they were drained from the glancing blow. Still, she kept on getting closer and closer to the ship's blind spot, always careful to try and blow off and kill the more imminent threats with her pink plasma first.

Loud bursts rang out as the turrets shifted targets and aimed up high at Kelly and his fancy new frame. "Damn it Kelly! Don't impale yourself on a sword just because you got a new toys!" she muttered again, a hint of jealously in her voice. He then yelled out Yoshiko's name, telling her to kill turrets, nearly blowing out her ear. Like a good girl, she yelled back, "I'm on it!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Taela responded quickly to the new orders, aiming carefully at the turrets and firing a few shots before supporting Yoshiko with her troubles. A spray of rapid fire across the tanks ensued. As she did this, she said to Yoshiko, "I suppose that I'll provide support fire while you head for the blind spot. Agreed?"

The Neko ended the statement with a well-placed shot at a turret that was getting its bearings on her companion.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Oh, Yeah, Missiles!" Shinji stated as if he were bored by the idea. He armed his missiles, and Meena could be seen as doing the same, and pretty soon the Z3 rockets were flying all over the place, heading for the tanks, and Shinji and Meena used the distraction as an opportunity to ignite their plasma thrusters and jump away from the circle of tanks.

*****

Oyu noticed something, It was a sound, that sounded like a Mecha starting up. He looked back, and saw that someone had taken his Ashigaru, and it was that moment that the compound's wall suddenly was hit by a barrage of rockets and missiles from the Mishhu troopers, the base cracking and falling over, the wall caved in, right on top of all the defenders, leaving a huge hole in the wall, which was quickly overrun, the few remaining defenders completely unable to do anything about it.