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

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

As the final defenders crumbled under the weight of the swarming Mishhu and the now ruined wall, Lucien realised he'd have to make a fighting retreat - and it'd have to be right through them if things seriously got bad.

"Alright ye wee pansy arse, squiddy daughtas' a bitches," He got one last look at his weapons, a Hyper Rifle with enough spare mags for ammo, a Missile pod loaded with High-Explosive, and the fists that came with the Frame, "Catch me, if ya can,"

He jumped to the side as a few rockets were sailing in his direction, and levelled himself with the ground in a crouch, firing the Hyper Rifle at the source of the invaders with a lovely noise. It was overkill, but it was the only way to be certain with Mishhu. He then begun moving and shooting at the same time, making his fire inaccurate, but it was very hard to miss the mass of invaders.

A solitary Mishhuvurthyar in an armour tried to flank him by leaping onto the Frame and tearing it open, but Lucien saw this (thanks to the 360 degree vision) made a hard turn and punched the bastard out of the sky with his spare hand, knocking him a considerable distance away from the fight.

As he was still running around the field, avoiding enemy fire as best as he could, he ejected the emptied magazine from the Hyper rifle and snapped a fresh one in. Another ripper attempted to charge the Scotsman and his Frame, but it was kicked like a football.

"Goal!" Lucien broadcast as the ripper sailed through the air and barrelled through the invaders. However, the celebration was cut short as he realised that the foot of his armour was damaged by the move, hindering his mobility and slowing him down considerably, "Ah, cripes, lend me a hand, willya?"

He was still able to let his Hyper Rifle keep on spraying, but it'd only be a matter of time until he had to reload again and leave himself open.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Despite their relative outdatedness compared to Kelly's frame, the five Ashigaru of the frame team were doing nicely. The missile and rocket bombardment, the guidance systems on the missiles assisted by the Asura's EW systems, quickly took out the bulk of the tank force, the few remaining stragglers being sniped from above by Kelly using his frame's LRGs and mini-missiles. Besides for the light armored vehicles and infantry assault the compound, and of course the now mostly turretless landing craft, most of the NMX forces in the area were either retreating to a safe distance or destroyed. Of course, things were going too well for something like this.

Kelly Williams, nominal commander of the OIF Atuan's frame pilots, smiled in the cockpit of his Asura, still hovering at altitude over the HIGA compound. Using the advanced sensor suite of the frame, he was coordinating his pilot's actions on the field. Despite what appeared to a framejacking of Oyu's Ashigaru, it was nothing to worry about. Overall, things were going great. "Good job, everyone. Kelly, Meena, move to the compound and assist Oyu, or whoever is in his Ashigaru, in clearing out the remaining NMX light armor. Yoshiko, Taela, move on top of the landing craft, and keep it under wr-" Kelly paused, as his frame's AI alerted him to three incoming aetheric energy signatures, and then warning alarms started blaring in his cockpit as four starship grade aether beams lanced down from the sky in front of him, piercing through he skin of the NMX ship. One of the lances of released potential energy managed a lucky strike, piercing through the heart of the landing ship's Aether Generator, causing an explosion that consumed the the starship, and annihilated everything within ten meters of the craft. Luckily, it had all happened too fast for Yoshiko and Taela to actually carry out Kelly's orders, sparing them from instant destruction.

"What the hell! Change of plans, everyone, sca-" Before Kelly could give any new orders, something came straight down from above him, smashing its blunt rounded into his Asura, and sending him pummeting to the ground, thrusters readjusting to keep it from slamming into the ground at full force. As the dust settled from the explosion, three frames of almost completely unknown make and model to anything seen before landed in the crater where the ship had been. The only thing common between them were that they all had six limbs. The one in the center, which had bodyslammed Kelly out of the sky, only had two legs, but had two pairs of arms, which were tipped in vicious looking claws. The other two frames had four legs and two arms, but seemed to be covered in guns, with its arms ending in large claws. Despite their alieness, there was something familiar about it, and there was only one group who could've made them: the NMX.

"Atuan, this is the frame team, I'm calling off the mission, we have three unknowns, two different classes. I'm requesting that you get down here and pick us up before we get ourselves killed!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

When the thing exploded, it was true that Taela was far enough away to not get hit directly by the blast. However, the shockwave that ensued afterwards knocked her over, causing her to crash into several trees and crush them. She groaned as she got up, a little groggy from the near concussion she got. The Neko heard Kelly's request for pickup, then thought of something that could help the situation.


"Kelly-sensei, should we engage the unidentified armors? If we use the Autocannon these Frames come equipped with, I believe we can destroy them - or at least damage them."

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Yoshiko was closest to the ship when it suddenly pushed up daisies. Violently. The explosion knocked her Ashigaru over, sending it tumbling a bit before finally falling onto it's fanny. Yoshiko gave out a surprised, "Oofff!" as her frame slowly got back up, dust slowly settling around her. Even though all that armor, the shock-wave still dazed her a little, and Yoshiko could hear Taela's voice, though slightly muffled. The ex-neko quickly flicked up the simple scanners of her Frame, and her jaw dropped. "Taela! Listen to Kelly! We're falling back! We can't take these guys on in the shape we're in! Not without some body bags for friends!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Ah, CRIPES!" Lucien was able to broadcast as the magazine in his Hyper Rifle was spent. There was still a swathe of ground troopers to deal with, and no time to reload - and by the look of it, a gigantic NMX piece of abomineering which would crush him like a bug, "Orright, 'ooever you lot are, I'm followin' ye - these squiddy bastards 'er gettin' too bitey,"

He decided to just eject the spent mag, and wait for the others to regroup to him. As he did so, however, he narrowly avoided a rocket from the ground. This prompted him to return fire in kind, with several high-explosive missiles carpet bombing the horde into oblivion. With any luck they'd have the sense to disperse - or not.

He definitely wasn't game to take on the gigantic abomination that were the NMX machines. He got a better look at it, now.
"Fookin' 'ell. That is one ugly piece 'a work," Lucien commented to whoever would've listened, "Now which way is outta 'ere?"

Then a little message popped up on screen. It seemed like Oyu's data download of the HiGA computer files had completed, previously unbeknownst to Lucien.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Whoah whoah whoah WHAOH." Shinji muttered, first at the sudden appearance of other mecha, then at the weird voice on the other end of the line that was Supposed to be Oyu's Unit 04.

"04, who Da hell're you?" he asked, confused, as his Ashigaru landed on the ground a ways away from the three sudden enemy mecha. "Ah, Kelly, wat's da ETA on da Atuan, there?" the Yamataian questioned his superior, starting to back up as he watched Meena do the same. Figuring they might try to do something, the both of them began to missile spam and hyper-rifle spam at the two smaller enemy frames from a distance.

****

The Atuan responded to Kelly's call "The Nepleslians finally decided to do something so we've got a small window, We'll be there in about a minute, Do you need a hot-evac or shall we land?" the Comm officer asked. Off in the distance, if anyone had been paying attention, the Atuan could be picked up on the horizon, barreling toward their position.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

The two smaller frames quickly returned fire, beams of aetheric energy lancing out towards Shinji and Meena as the four legged mecha took large leaps at Taela and Yoshiko, telescoping claws managing to penetrate their shields and leave large, nasty looking gashes through the bodies of their frames. Meanwhile, the Aether beams pierced through the main optical sensor of Meena's Ashigaru, leaving her mostly blind; while the other beam got a lucky shot on Shinji, cutting into the left calf's missile storage and detonating one of the missiles stored there, sending him flying to the right, with two gaping holes in the frame's legs: one where the Aether had pierced inside, and another one where the jet of molten hot metal had pierced through from the inside.

***

"We need a hot evacuation, and I wanted it thirty seconds ago! Enemy frames have Anti-starship capacity, so be careful. I don't want to be left here. Frame team, we have one minute, so stay alive!" Kelly yelled out over the subspace com to the Atuan and his fellow pilots, his Asura rushing forward along the ground at the four-armed frame, raising his mech's bladed arm and bringing it down in a slice... only for the smaller set of arms on the the alien frame to block it by projecting a powerful energy shield, and the massive claws came up, towards his Asura's chest, and Kelly's cockpit. This, however, was just what Kelly was looking for, as four spindly arms, each holding a single plasma gun, emerged from the shoulders and skirt armor of the frame. Each plasma gun snapped into a slightly longer, more hilt-like shape, and began to emit blades of magnetically contained plasma, thrusting at the enemy frame and deflecting away the nasty looking claws, leaving both frames entwined with each other in a deadly embrace.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"I'll answer that quest'n innae moment!" Lucien responded to Shinji's radio call in a hurried fashion, "Fer now, we got 'us a problem tae -" The Render left Shinji and Meena's Frames in an apparently critical state, and in no condition to fight in a few quick blows as Lucien was trying to convey his concern. He realised with shock that it was up to him to prevent the Renders from finishing them off.

His frame jumped into action with the Hyper Rifle raised, and made a pair of shots to get the the Render's attention.
"HEY!!" He roared out from within his mech, "PICK ON SOMEONE YER OWN SIZE 'ER OI'LL I'LL BURY WOT'S LEFT OF YA - IN A LUNCHBOX!!" He then realised that the Frames don't come equipped with loudspeakers, and amended to add a few if he ever got the chance to.

The plan now was to keep their attention while the others could attack their more vulnerable flanks. Even though his mobility was compromised with a damaged kicking foot, he could still boost around recklessly and zip around in an unpredictable enough fashion to keep their attention, unwittingly taking advantage of the AMBAC system. If there was a way to override the Automatic Stability for a temporary period, he'd be backflipping too.

Since that wasn't the case, he was laying down suppressive fire at the Renders to further keep their focus centred on himself - whilst allowing for Shinji and Meena to recover and hit the flanks.
"Bag 'em while I got the squiddy bastar's attention!" Lucien radioed Shinji and Meena as he tried to cope with motion sickness, "NOW!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"Kyyyyahhhhhhhh!" The Render impacted the two Origin frames, easily penetrating armor and hull; Yoshiko instinctively screamed and grasped it's wrist as it clawed at her chest; she attempted to keep it from going deeper into her. The Render itself replied by thrusting it's other arm at Yoshiko, and she dropped her carbine to keep the thing at bay. 'No good!' The sound of screeching metal grew louder until a slight distortion showed up to the upper right of the view screen. A claw tip suddenly penetrated into the cockpit sphere, damaging and destroying panels. She sat and watched, and yet at the same time tried to hold it out with her 'hands' as the tip enlarged the gap, seeking her out. Her lip jerked and twitched at the sight. She lost it.

Ashigaru En-Oh Zero Two fired everything it had; chest mounted pulse lasers, phased array lasers in the head, and the calf missiles, all directly at the Render point blank. Yoshiko screamed her lungs out at the NMX monstrosity and ignited the plasma conduits in the hands in an attempt to burn her way free, her thrusters manically yanking her left and right; at this point, the Render was trying to let go of it's psychotically moving prey. But she wouldn't let go, and she wouldn't stop screeching.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Taila saw the Render coming, almost as in slow motion, but before she could do anything, it knocked down her shield levels to almost below zero (if such a thing were possible) and had moved onto her companion. Needless to say, she was pretty annoyed at the affair. That was, until Yoshiko went beserk. Taela had dropped her Carbine by that point and almost activated her Plasma Sabre in order to slice the annoying NMX machine off of her ex-neko pal, when all hell broke loose. The other Ashigaru began firing off just about every weapon there was as Yoshiko's voice screeched over the radio. Every and any stray shots hit the arms, legs, and sides of Taela Frame.

"Yoshiko, snap out of it! You have to calm down!" The Neko barked into her comm, activating her Sabre. The attack had to be done with the utmost care, otherwise she'd hurt her friend. So she aimed and braced herself as she lurched forward to slice the Render off.




*due to her being in front of the Yoshiko's Ashigaru

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Meena immediately got her auxiliary sensors working, and locked onto the nearest Render frame, blowing as many missiles as she had left at the thing.
Shinji, on the other hand, worked through the loud noises and warnings in his cockpit to stand it up again, and helped send better telemetry to Meena's frame, while mirroring her launching of their missiles.

*****

The Atuan roared overhead, arriving on scene, finally, just in time. the weapons on the underside of the craft opened fire, it's starship-grade cannons pounding upon the shields of the enemy frames. The Atuan's controller called to the frame team on the ground "Jump up into the bays as soon as they're opened! You've got thirty seconds from the time they're fully extended to the time we get out of here!"

The doors began to open downward, and within a few seconds were wide enough for the Frames to begin jumping in. Shinji and Meena, knowing they were bad off, Boosted upwards in the distraction caused by their mothership, getting ready to land in and hook up.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Luckily for Yoshiko, her panic driven attack worked, bypassing the Render's shields and pummeling its armor. Yoshiko was able to pull away from it, after all, bringing the frame's claw with it. The Render had collapsed, fallen down to the ground as the Ashigaru pulled away from it, the NMX pilot and brainslave both killed by the overwhelming fire from Lucien, Yoshiko, and Taela.

The remaining Render followed its trail of fire after Meena and Shinji, aether beams and plasma bolts impacting against the Atuan's shields. Planting itself firmly in the ground, the Render took aim at the justicar, charging and firing one of its anti-starship at the dropship. The pinkish beam of potential energy lanced out at the ship, only to be intercepted by a massive Zesuaiam claw. Kelly, who had wrestled the four armed frame away from the rest of the team, had managed to liberate one of its claws from it, using it as an impromptu shield, protecting the Atuan. His voice crackled over the radio, "What are you all doing? Get On the damn ship, now!"

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

When the arm tore out of the Render, Yoshiko fell on her can with a cute "Ooooff!" She quickly shook her head and replied to Taela, "I"m sorry, I'm sorry! Are you ok there?" Ashigaru Zero Two hastily got onto it's feet, and gave an awkward glance at the severed arm in it's grasp, it's shiny zesuaium claws glistening. Kelly yelled at her and everybody again, except this time to hurry up and hop back onto the Atuan so they could all run away like...something. She couldn't really think of something fitting for herself. And then she did; 'Kitty!' As the others started to leave her behind, Yoshiko snapped out of her brief reverie to speak, "Hey! Wait up guys!" before stooping over to tear the Other arm out of the now deceased Render. "He-he!" The ex-neko giggled aloud. 'Now I have an even pair!' Yoshiko's Ashigaru ascended into the sky after the others, Atuan bound.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Lucien was the last person to get onto the Atuan as his dodging abilities paid off, allowing Shinji and Meena to let all hell break loose on the Renders, and then allow the Atuan to rip them both a new one.

"'At's the way ye do it, mates!" Lucien roared in triumph over the radio waves, "Remind me tae buy ye all a beer when we get off 'er this rock!"
He then used the now familiar feeling Ashigaru Frame to propel himself up towards the Atuan's Frame bay. Hopefully this would be the end of it and he'd just be able to sit down with 'em, "Don't ye leave without me, now! I believe I got me some explainin' tae do."

He could really go for a cold beer right about now, having taken on hordes of NMX-allied Nekovalkyrja, booted and punched Ripper armours into space, and evaded a flurry of fire from two gargantuan mechanical monstrosities. Those sorts of activities would definitely warrant cold, alcoholic beverages.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Taela's Frame showed visible signs of damage from Yoshiko's spouts of fire, but it still functioned fairly well (Aside from the sensor or two being damaged and the large gash on the front). She was quick to put away her Sabre and even quicker to pick of the carbine rifle back up off the ground and discharge a few more shots into the Render just to make sure.

"I'm a little scratched, but I'll be fine." The Neko replied to Yoshiko, following close behind while still keeping an eye on her surroundings. She got the frame docked in the Atuan right after her friend would've, shakily disembarking from her Frame. First real combat experience, first time to have nerves rattled.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Once everyone was onboard, the Atuan closed up its doors, continuing the pounding on the two remaining frames on the ground, whom were viciously pounding back on the Atuan's shields.

Within moments, however, the Justicar Mecha carrier was blasting off through the atmosphere, towards a portion of sky still open for them to exit, and boosted into orbit, getting ready for the first of a series of FTL jumps.

*****

Shinji got out of his damaged Unit 06, taking a few things with him, and looked at the sad shape the frame was in, before heading into the center corridor and moving towards unit 04. "Okay, Whoevah's in there Bettah come out righ' now, Cuz we juss left Oyu down on that mudball, and someone's gotta answa fer it." he yelled, knocking on the frame's door, and putting a hand on his RPB.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Lucien, having forgotten that he was in a Frame, was just sitting down and breathing heavily after the adrenaline giving experience. The Frame was in a similar position on the ground, and away from the scaffolding. He could really go for that beer about now. Eventually, he heard someone demanding that he get out of the Frame.

"Orright orright, one moment mate," He said as he fumbled for a moment to get the cockpit open. The cockpit opened up, and he stood up, then clambered down.

What Shinji would see was a man with a bushy bearded man, built like a brick shithouse wearing a black biker's jacket, a white shirt under the jacket, jeans, black knee boots, fingerless gloves, a belt with with a pair of .22 pistols.

Upon seeing Shinji's hand over his weapon, he put his hand over his own .22.
"I suppose we got off on th' wrong foot," He said as he remembered the most recent events, "Yer friend, I think y'called him Oyu, got outta this big mother 'o a killin' machine behind me - in the middle of combat."

He motioned to the frame behind him, "I dunnae if it was part 'o a big plan, but it was a bloody stupid idea. 'E got crushed by a wall as those squiddy bastards 'n their many Nekoval... valker..." He was struggling with the pronunciation but then grunted, "Whotever they were they killed Oyu. I 'appened to be nearby - and I figgled out that I could either get off've this dirtball, or do some damage to the squids with this big mother behind me."

He rapped the hull with his knuckles, "Either way - I helped ya out, didn't I? I believe we owe each other a beer."

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Ashigaru Unit Zero Two dropped the two ironically rendered arms at it's feet before settling down in it's alcove within the Atuan. A hatch on the Frame opened up, and it's pilot hopped out in a frantic hurry, footfalls heavy due to the Impulse power armor she wore. As the Ex-Neko neared another Ashigaru, she struggled to yank her helmet off, finally letting it clatter to the floor. Before she even glanced at the damage she did, Yoshiko started to wax apologies over Taela again. "I'm really, really, really sorry! I'll make it up to you I swears it!" She half pleaded. "I'll even do some of the repair work on your Ashi..." Yoshiko's voice trailed off as she finally got a good look at the damage. Next, she looked back and over her shoulder at her own Ashigaru; it's chest was ripped open by massive claws which now rested at it's feet.

The damage went several feet into the heavy armor plate, and even exposed some of the underlying superstructure. Not only were the initial slashes bad enough, but her own struggling had only caused the gouges to be deeper. It was a miracle that the cockpit breach was so minor in comparison. "Uh. I've...done some car body work before when my mom bumped her car. But. But this is, um. Big. Yeah. Really big." If Yoshiko still had her cat ears, they would have drooped from the daunting realization. 'On the bright side, it looks like Origin stuff is built to last and be safe. Right? Right? Hello?' She called out into the abyss that was her mind, and for some reason, happiness was not answering. 'It's so dark in here...'

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

Kelly's Asura was mostly undamaged as he dropped into the Atuan's mecha-bay, the frame's more powerful shielding keeping the hull from being seriously damaged. Sure, that four armed frame had torn off one of his sub arms, but Kelly had used one of the thing's massive claws as a makeshift shield to protect the Atuan. Luckily, it had worked, and everyone he was responsible for had managed to survive.

The ship's repair technicians swarmed over the more heavily damaged frames out of the group, the preliminary repair data and cost estimates being fed directly into Kelly's cybernetic brain. The nepleslian rubbed his left temple as he realized that they had barely survived this engagement, though it was to be expected from the surprises sprung on them. At least they had gotten some good data for sector seven to use. As Kelly walked over to the new guy and Shinji, he automatically brought up the optical sensor data of Oyu's frame, and the records from his Impulse up until its destruction.

"Leave him, Shinji. Oyu's Impulse was destroyed when he left the Ashigaru, and whoever," Kelly looked at Lucien and smiled, "this is, he's a damn good pilot for a newbie. I'd have him on my wing any day." The black nep smiled, placing a hand on the Scotsman's shoulder. "I'll get you a cold one, but come, walk with me, I'll introduce you to the rest of the squadron." Kelly led Lucien out of the port bay, and across the corridor into the starboard bay, where Yoshiko's heavily damage frame stood. Kelly whistled, as the digital reports hadn't prepared him for the real thing. He actually sped up his pace, rushing over to Yoshiko and Taela.

"Yoshiko, how are you holding up? You didn't get too shaken up, did you?" Kelly smiled at the neko, reaching up to push a braid out of his face, eyes full of honest concern for the girl.

Re: Episode 2: Repo Squad.

"It will be fine, Yoshi-san." Taela calmly replied, remembering her honorifics now that she wasn't in the middle of battle. "The bankers can probably take a small hit to their pocketbooks, especially when that hit came at the cost of all the battle data."

The Neko turned to her superior, taking an attentive pose before asking, "Permission to go have a nice, hard drink, sir? I hate the taste, but I feel like I need something to wash down this skirmish."