RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 5: Taps

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Mark, keep an eye on the radar. I'm going to support Victoria as we head back so she has as smooth a landing as possible," Taela commanded, turning her thrusters at full blast to catch up to her teammate. Over the radio, she informed, "This is unit Five. I'm coming to help you enter, if you need it, Victoria."

As she flew, she took potshots at any stray demon that got too big for its britches.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Warning - Weapons systems Overheated!
Warning - Insufficient Ammunition. Seek resupply!
Warning - Power Supply low. Seek resupply!

Lucien was left panting for breath after his massive attack, he couldn't even smile in satisfaction at the havoc he'd wreaked upon the Yui. He did know, however, that he'd done his job and then some.
"Orright," He replied to the Atuan between deep breaths, "I'm comin' home ta roost, unit oh-one, that is,"

He started heading back towards the Atuan. He looked around his cockpit and noted that in the compartment under his seat, he'd left not only his spare change of uniform, but his 10mm pistol too. A smart move in hidnsight.

As the AI took over and autopiloted the Frame back towards the Atuan, Lucien loaded his pistol with full metal jacket rounds and put it on his lap, not yet cocked, but ready if he experienced trouble upon landing.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Mark didn't reply to Taela. He was too busy following her orders. His keystrokes and button-presses brought up the most advanced display of tactical telemetry he could muster in the cramped cockpit. He marked Vici's unit on the radar and any enemies near it. He also marked a predicted vector of entry from her unit to the Atuan's hanger. With a free hand, the former journalist reached down to the Standard Energy Pistol between his feet and switched it on, ready to fight if and when they got inside the ship.

"Taela, " He asked in a low tone, "Do you think the SEP will do any damage to those Demons?"

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Async took a moment to catch her bearings and clamber out of the wrecked Oban, stuck fast against the Atuan's hull.

Hey, that worked better than I thought it would, she thought, pulling her SEP out of its holster and advancing across the hull to the nearest airlock. "This isn't going to do jack skippy against those armors..." the Freespacer muttered to herself, noting the access label and bringing up the map of the Atuan from her memory implant, looking for an armory nearby as the airlock cycled.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. Remind me, why is it always this way Kelly?" Yuno complained. The Reds had managed to push the HiGA forces back into their facilities, but hadn't been able to penetrate any further. Kelly and the Origin Away Team were, for the time being, cut off from any craft off the moon; in the fighting, several were destroyed, and plasma conduits had broken, cutting them off from the rest and damaging them further in the process. And so, they waited.

"Because we were in too much of a hurry?" Kelly cracked. Yuno 'gently' hit him over the head with a power armored hand, knocking him out.

"Smartass." She spoke casually. Yuno then turned an eye on him. "Huh. Kelly? That's funny. Nepleslians are supposed to be sexy men of brawn and action!" The Neko joked, attempting to elicit a reaction from the dark skinned man. She sighed and grunted at the same time, realizing he was genuinely out cold from the slap to the head. "Get up. Now." Yuno's foot pressed down on the now moaning Kelly's wounded arm, at which the man properly woke up screaming. "Better. Wait. What?" Her boot came off Kelly as she walked away, instinctively pressing a finger to where her ear would be.

"Oh god, why?!" Kelly cried out in pain. While the Ensign moaned some more from the broken arm and bruised head, Yuno's expression soured. Meanwhile, the rest of the away team was watching the two eagerly, entertained like spectators watching gladiators fight.

"Well. Your crew out there took care of one Yui." Yuno spoke, her brazen voice quickly overpowering the chatter and moans from Kelly. "Bad news. There's nothing left of my shuttle." She kicked Kelly in the ribs.

****

The Impulse trembled as it got up from behind the shredded greenery that was her bed, unsteadily walking towards the doorway and the shattered bodies that cluttered it. Strangers spoke in her ear. "Shit! The other team's down! Move up the shaft, double time! Move, move!"

"What the hell took them all down? Wasn't it just one broad?!"

"That's it man, game over man, game over! What the hell are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do man?" cried a third in Yoshiko's ear. The ex-neko kept on shuffling forward. A wet sniff as she put her gauss rifle onto the gun rack on her pack.

"Keep moving, it's right there! Leroy! Shit, you're didn't permanantly cut off the AI's access to the - !" The Impulse's head swiveled up at the HiGA employee's direction, peering it through the walls of the ship. The man had halfway clambered out of the elevator shaft when Yoshiko muttered something. The elevator came crashing down, smashing them all the way down to the bottommost level in the Atuan.

****

"Ohmygodomygodohmygod they killed Jenkins!"

"Cut it out soldier, and remember you're eleven! Everyone, push the elevator cabin up on three! One, two, th -" Sudden footfalls echoed through their suits' microphones as something heavy dropped down the shaft and landed on the elevator car on top of them. They all froze in horror as a grate was moved aside, and something entered the space not six inches from the closest of them. The elevator doors opened with a clear Ding!, followed by someone exiting. Then they panicked at the bell.

Limbs flailed and tensed, and just as the elevator was pushed up and held above their heads, light poured in from the exit. The rotating barrels flashed as one long burst cut into them.

****

The autocannon that Yoshiko picked up dropped to the floor. Her battered Impulse's knees came together ash she sunk to the floor. "A-all clear Miss A-Arah." As she cut off the comm link, Yoshiko started to cry into her helmet.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Somehow or other, everyone managed to land their frames- aside from @synch, whose frame was now embedded in the Atuan's hull like some rather large misshapen mole. Everyone's enthusiasm for a fight with the power armor, however, was unneeded, as Yoshiko managed to handle the situation by herself. Instead, the bay doors simply closed and work began on securing the frames, and very quickly, arms from the ceiling began to remove the empty fuel binders and some of the more easily removable broken equipment, such as sub-arms.

The Atuan remained on site, moving slowly towards the Black Moon, since they still had yet to receive much word from the away team.


******

Shinji and Meena disembarked from their somewhat battered Kirin, and Meena began to look over the damage while Shinji chose instead to help break down the broken parts into bits small enough to take up to the machine shop for storage and possibly later use. The rest of the pilots were given the choice of watching or helping, as well, and all seemed to be good. the battle was over.


And then the warning Klaxons began blaring again, the lights turned back to red for an alert. Something had been sighted.

******

"A second Yui has just exited CFS stealth approximately 1,000 kilometers from our position!" the sensor operator called out, bringing an image up on the screen of the ship, this one obviously much newer than the other had been. It began firing immediately, from a few surface-mounted guns this time, and an energy spike showed it had a main cannon that was charging.

Its surface erupted into a number of hatches, the bottom swinging open with three bay doors once more, but this time only three Zilants and 20 Powered armor arrived, though there was little doubt there would be more Dark Demons hiding.

******

"Your suits have been refueled, and all damaged parts removed, however, we were only able to complete half of the reloading" Ged informed the pilots. "You are to sortie immediately, I doubt this will be an easy fight, even without weapons pods attacking us."

******

Shinji and Meena lost no time getting back in their Kirin. It had been reloaded with four feathers, and new fuel binders, but the missiles and other built-in weapons hadn't been attended to yet. only the rifle had full ammunition, and it was much the same for everyone else.

Everyone except @synch. She was guided to Yoshiko's fully equipped, undamaged Asura.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

In response to Mark, Taela replied, "Let us hope so, for our sake," though her comment was proven for naught, as moments later they were required to leave again. "Of all the terrible things, why do these keep on coming out?" She groaned, disgruntled by the fact that they have no relief, "I honestly want to know who wants to kill us this badly. This is absurd."

As soon as Mark and herself were ready and reseated, she launched the Frame from the bay, then immediately turned towards the Yui and company and began strafing away from the Atuan, taking careful aim at the first targets within range and firing the Hyper Rifle.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

As soon as he could manage it, Mark released the four Feathers and kept them ensconced around the Kirin. Taking a page from Shinji's book earlier, Mark had figured out a few of their tricks. The feathers hovered neatly around the Kirin, using its massive frame as a shield from incoming fire. Occasionally, they would peek out for fire into the fray, from different angles every time. Their one-after-another pattern kept up an almost steady stream of fire from behind the freshly refueled Kirin.

Meanwhile, Mark was also attempting to intercept communications from the Yui once again. This time, he used a variety of frequencies to batter the hull of the Yui. It as while he was multitasking that his finger accidentally smacked another key on the Feather controls, sending a single missile sailing off towards one of the powered armors in a curvy white streak.

"Missles? These things have missles?" Mark chided himself before leaning forward and placing his hand on Taela's shoulder.

"Taela, I just realized these Feathers have missles in them as well as the lasers. Do you want me to save them for the Zilant, or the Yui?"

With this sudden revelation, the Neko cracked a smile. "Well, that is good news if I ever heard it. Save them for whatever starts hitting the Atuan first. We need to keep our ride home intact, after all."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Asynch took a moment to admire Yoshiko's frame, making herself a promise to not ruin this finely painted weapon like she had the civilian model, an automated system bringing round the last of several self-guided mini-missile packs being loaded into the modified Asura's shoulder pods and locking down the arming rack holding a graser rifle. Climbing into the mecha, the Freespacer enjoyed the feeling of her Silhouette establishing itself in her comrades vehicle, meshing with several psychic ghosts left over from the last time the ex-Neko piloted the frame. Tensing at the interfaces, Async took off from the Atuan, a large cluster of 50 missiles firing off as soon as the frame's sensors picked up the enemy armor and mecha.

While her graser picked at the Yui's defenses with it's 'Magnum' shots, Async's four sub-arms, each wielding a plasma pistol, peppered the smaller targets as they closed range.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Vici was not complete newbie in the world of technology and she was not afraid to get her hands dirty. So she gave a hand to mechanics, but only when they wanted it and needed. She didn't wanted to stay in way to more experienced techies. She also wanted to know more about her mecha, but there was so much of it.

She also took a short while to examine her cockpit. She could fit energy pack for her impulse inside. But she saw no place where she could stick Gauss rifle, unless said rifle would taken apart. Vici frowned upon that knowledge. But in the and she just frowned and climber inside cockpit.

She was fine wnough with being refueled. She still had enough ammor from before. She exchanged chaing on her chain-straight though. Then she reloaded her Hyper rifle and launched after other. "Unit vier. Ich bin ready for combat."

She prepared to use her hyper rifle. Although she would like something heavier this time.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Lucien was just about to stand up and get out of his Frame, when he was told to sit back down and get a sudden resupply.

"Awhuuuaa-!?" He garbled as he tried to put the dots together. There was another Yui?! He couldn't quite get his head around this fact, but facts were facts, and there was another.

"Orright, uh," Lucien sounded flustered as he radioed his team mates, "If we're gonna take this down, methinks we need to concentrate all of our fire on th' belly. Trust me, we need ta shoot this bugger first, shoot it again, 'n ask questions later."

He then explained his logic, "'Cos it wos being STEALTHY! It obviously 'as something to HIDE, like the intent to KILL US ALL!!"

To Lucien, stealth smacked of foul play in a fight that he bluntly wouldn't abide by - they were only delaying getting their eternal reward anyway.
With that in mind, he launched with about half of his stuff resupplied freshly, and went up, up and away. On the plus side, this meant that he still had a Targa shield and most of his shields back.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"You know, you all really have your work cut out for you." Yuno flatly spoke, sitting on top of a pile of crates. The last of the fighting was starting to die down on the base, but she knew there was worse to come for Kelly's other friends. She could see the battle. Still, the Neko didn't say a word about it. 'I may be a bitch at times, but I really don't want to put too much on Kelly's plate.' Yuno thought to herself. The old and battered Mindy looked at the Origin Employees for a moment before asking them something. "Give it to me straight boys; do you guys always have this much action thrown your way?"

The Ori-Sec team shook their heads back and forward in a 'No'. Kelly however, was shaking his head up and down, if only briefly before sheepishly shaking his head back and forward with the others. Yuno lazily watched as his cornrows shook back and forward with the motion. "Huh. Maybe I should try joining Origin. What do you guys think." They all suddenly tensed up. 'Yeah. That got their attention.

As she sat inside the hangar, a new shuttle being prepped and/or salvaged, Yuno's eyes watched a data feed; the Yui and it's contents bearing down on the Atuan's crew. Nostalgia, both delightful and painful lanced through her chest.

*****

She had to move fast. She couldn't just cry forever. Yoshiko drowned out he misery as soon as possible by working hard. She scurried about in her scarred Impulse, hefting ordinance and parts for the crew's frames. She was afraid they'd want to talk after all that, but hoped that by looking busy, they would give her some time alone. Yoshiko got her bit of alone time all right, but not in the way she wanted. Nothing was going the way she wanted.

As the Frames departed from the Atuan, the Ex-Neko turned Yamataian slumped down to the ground and took a deep breath. She wanted to not think. Anything but think about that! But just trying not to think about it wasn't working. Something else had to be done.

"Try Not To Scratch The Paint, And Make Sure To Be Careful With The Zesu Wristblades I Got On It! They're Really Really Sharp!" Yoshiko shouted over the comm to @synch.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Asynch pursed her lips in a sinister smile as she thought a playful response back at Yoshiko, "do I get a special reward if I do, Miss Tachibana?"

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Once again, the three Zilant frames remained back nearer the Yui, apparently knowing that they weren't really a match for the M1 frames the Atuan had, apparently, even afraid of them in a damaged state.

The Power Armor that were with them, however, seemed to have no such gumption. These were much larger than the Demons and Dark Demons that had been on the previous Yui, and the showed something for it- increased shielding. The arms of the PA- which a sweep of visual sensors would show them were crossed in front - were very bulky, and projected large amounts of shielding, which easily fended off most of the grazing blows that hit them.

And then they showed another surprise: White beams. White beams meant one thing: these were packing Aether weaponry. The beams turned out to be rather inaccurate over this distance, however, a Graze to the shields of the two Kirins showed that these white beams made up for their accuracy with their power. The two frames had their shields cut by almost 40% by a single blast.

"Wat da Fock are those things?" Shinji yelled over the comms, having never encountered something like this. He was answered by the comms officer on board the Atuan. "Those are Crooked Demon Power armors! they're really really dangerous, if you couldn't tell already. not just at range, but close up, they have monomelecular Nermium vibro-claws, which will have no trouble cutting you to ribbons if they get in melee range! You need to keep them away as much as possible!"

"Orright orright" Shinji responded, before relaying to everyone "Oi, these are Crooked demons, these bastards got vibratey claws or sommat! Try 'ta keep 'em at bay, we don't want 'em close and we don't want to give 'em any openings at range!"

******

Those that had fired upon the Yui, noticed that the Yui's shields were up, and that they had wasted their shots, which lacked to power to do anything to the shields. The Atuan was trying to bring its weapons to bear, but damage from the previous battle had slowed the Atuan's movements to an excruciatingly slow rate.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Taela groaned in anger and her distaste of the situation at hand.

"Of all the things to happen. . . What's next? A Mishuvarian battleship coming out from behind the Yui?" She complained aloud, before addressing the problem at hand. "New plan, Marc. Blast the Demons to kingdom come and hope we don't meet them there."

She turned her Hyper Rifle's attention to the aforementioned Demons, taking careful aim at the first ones to come along.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Achtung, be careful leute." VIci said over the comm. She launched as one of the last so she was more in the back and no one fired at her. Yet.

She steadied herself on place and shouldered her Hyper rifle. She took brief time to remember specification of Hyper rifle. In full auto it was shooting two round a second, which make it perfect for shooting controled and accurate two-round bursts. Its muzzle velocity is extreme and can be fired at quite large distancies. It was perfect for Vici's current situation.

Rushing forward would be useless, she could not support peopel who advanced more effectively and getting closer to those demon armours is not very good idea. But she can snipe enemy from the position she had.

Vici set her computer to use more of its computing power for targeting and shot few short two-round bursts and enemy PAs to see how effective will this tactics prove to be.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

A battered and worn warsuit, pockmarked with craters and scars perked up like a young Yamataian girl at the unexpected reply. One that she desperately needed. "Uh, I, uh..." The Impulse looked about nervously for something, anything she could offer in return in a rather helpless manner. Considering Yoshiko was in the hangar, she didn't find anything.

"Um. All I have to offer is..." Her voice shrunk a little as she went on, "Well, is my gratitude." she meekly replied, hoping it would be enough.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

In light of the most recent command from Taela, Mark smiled wickedly. With his hands firmly placed on the controls for the Feathers, he advanced all four of them, each firing off their entire supply of missiles in a blazing streak of death, arcing towards the group of crooked demons. He monitored the projectiles on the sensors, antcipation building as they closed in on their targets.

"You can't aether beam all of them, you stupid bastards." He muttered, his fingers clenched tight on the control panel.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Asynch openly growled as the high-powered grasers were mitigated by the new Yui's shields, the energetic distortions quickly ameliorated as the ship's emitters regenerated such minimal damage. Yoshiko's befuddled and innocent reply keeping the EVA suit-clad 'Spacer from charging headlong at the ship like she had last time. Instead, she fixed her firepower firmly on the encroaching demons, super-heavy anti-armor pulses of gamma rays almost scalding the void they tore through to get at the enemy hostiles as plasma bolts and mini-missiles lagged behind the coherent beams of light.

"Gratitude sounds wonderful, I'll be sure to exploit it to the fullest when I bring your frame back, Miss Tachibana," she purred over the comms, fighting the urge to lean forward to take in the absent scroll of data and images from a status display more familiar to her than the purely neuronal interface of the Origin-built machine.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Lucien was positively torn between going for the Yui, or going for the more immediate Crooked Demons. The Crooked Demons seemed to be much more problematic, but his sense of honour was having a hard time abiding to the fact that another freakin' Yui had showed up with its buddies.

Ah well, gotta follow me orders, Lucien groaned mentally, lamenting that he had to pick his battles, and this time, he had to pick a little fight - with a big thing that could spew aether.

In comparison to a Yui, a little thing on legs with aether and stupidly powerful claws made of swords stolen from Nekovalkyrja Samurai (or so the Scotsman thought) was a massive problem.

So, he decided to act carefully, he wasn't going to let those Demons get close. He decided to use his Railgun and Pulse Laser in tandem to attack the Demons, however, he'd also give flashes of his forearm autocannon too, to give them a bit more kick.

He then radioed the Atuan, "Unit oh-one 'ere, lis'n. 'ave ya got any way ta get the plans to one 'o these Crooked Demons? Could be useful if we know their weaknesses."