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

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"DAMN IT YUNO!" Kelly screamed at the Neko. "I Know you're holding back!" The Nepleslian was more furious than ever before; after this, he would be glad that nobody got to see him like this. Despite his broken and slung arm, he stepped forward and grabbed the Nekovalkyrja by the armor's collar with the good arm and pulled her closer. Yuno turned away though, further inciting the man. "Tell me what's happening to my crew!" Seconds ticked by as the formerly formidable Mindy kept silent against the Impulse's rage. Kelly shoved her away, and gestured for a Gauss Rifle. "If you're not telling me, we're going to the nearest observation post to find out for ourselves." The Mindy turned back to stare at him with it's faceless helmet.

"Baka." Yuno inhaled and rolled her shoulders to stretch a little. "I won't tell you. But I'll show you instead." The entire away team shifted and shuffled slightly as the data feed and strength analysis popped up on their HUDs. Kelly simply sat down again, face in hand.

"No, no, no..." He moaned. Yuno hugged herself and leaned back on a wall as Kelly spiraled into the despair she wanted to spare him from.


*****

Yoshiko nodded in reply, not quite comprehending the Freespacer's message in it's fullest, and gave an enthusiastic "Unn!". As they left, Yoshiko reloaded and then holstered her rifle; there was work to be done. She started to bring as many ammo packs out of storage and into the hangar for the Armor teams to simply grab at, provided there was an opportunity to open up and let them pick it up. Hopefully, Yoshiko's thoughtfulness combined with her own initiative would pay off. Several rolls of duct tape were used up as she simply bound the massive magazines and batteries to the hangar floor for the time being.

"Ducky tape." She spoke to nobody in particular, taping down loose magazines and ammunition so that the crew could snatch them up easily.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

The concentrated fire seemed to be enough to stop the CD's from firing, causing them instead to simply boost to full speed, careening straight at the Atuan. Before the Frame teams could react, the armors were 'behind' them, and they suddenly revealed their true purpose: Each CD split into three (One CD and two Dark Demons), making their enemies total sixty PA, but the fourty 'new' PA chose to swarm the Atuan instead, with the CD's acting as interference to keep the Frame team from going back and helping.

It was fairly obvious that whatever the Frame team thought they had been doing, they hadn't been doing it seriously enough.

The three Zilants took this opportunity to open fire, and began pelting the Frame team with coilgun rounds and other kinetic projectiles. They were nowhere near as dangerous as the CD's Aether beams, but still enough to be a worry.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, the Frame teams could only wonder a couple things. One was why were they being targeted, and the other was why the Yui wasn't just opening fire.

"Shit, Dammit!" Shinji yelled, completely confused as to what to do. They needed to stop the DD's from getting back into the already breached Atuan, but there were CD's in the way. However, the couldn't just deal with the CD's as the Zilants were still some threat. Dealing with them wasn't an option either, not only would it give the Demons free reign, but it would also put them dangerously close to the Yui itself.

"F***!" Shinji yelled, unable to think. He had washed out of military training, and wasn't a soldier. He was a test pilot. This was certainly a test, but not the kind Shinji or Meena knew how to deal with. But, he had a duty as a leader. Biting the proverbial bullet, Shinji roared "STOP THE DAMN DD'S! IGNORE ALL THE OTHER SHIT FOR NOW!"

Whether or not listening to Shinji's order was a good idea or not was to be seen.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Hell's Bells!" Async complained, barely avoiding a coilgun round, a binder flinching out of the way at the last moment, her shields already dropped slightly from ablating the close-call, "As fancy as these newfangled machines are, I'd not mind committing to human sacrifice to get some drone support in dealing with these fecund vermin!"

She fired her graser rifle on the lower setting with one hand, plasma and mini-missiles providing a screen of fire as she closed with a Crooked Demon and drew a chain straight, revving the blade out of the draw and transitioning into an upward slash as the four pistols grasped in her sub-arms were transformed into their saber configuration and arranged defensively, "I'M TIRED OF THESE ASSHOLES!"

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Since Victorie was closest to Atuan because of her retaining her sniper position it was op to her to get there first too. She couldn't use Hyper rifle because she could damage Atuan too much.

So they said that enemy was strong ne meele? Victoria smirked at drew both of her Chain swords. She was very good fencer and in mecha she had much better reach. But she was bigger, if she'll keep her distance it should be okay. She can also DUPL and autocannon since those doesn'T need her hand and they shouldn't damage Atuan.

WIth the she lunged for the damaged airlock, opening fire from her on-board gun on armour, since the airlock would probably be the place where most PAs try breaching.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Lucien could sense Shinji's calm cracking from his radio, and it was starting to impact on the Scotsman too. The situation was looking pretty dire, and highly disadvantageous.

"I'm makin' a fightin' retreat as I do!" Lucien radioed to Shinji as he continued fighting off the CD's and DD's with his Autocannon, Vulcan and Railgun. He was starting to strain the capacity of his ammo for those weapons, though.

He decided to start chewing on his mini missile supply, which was only halfway filled when he boarded the Atuan for a few moments after he thought the battle was over. He shuddered at the thought of a third onslaught, for which there'd be a clear, crushing defeat.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Simply put, Taela was frustrated. Sure, Mishu didn't turn up like she had sarcastically predicted, but they might as well have for what it was worth. These Demons were like having a swarm of mosquitoes around you. Mutated, superpowered, mosquitoes with bodies of steel and stingers a foot long. The Neko growled in frustration as she turned to face the semi-new threat, opening fire on each Demon she could. With careful aim, of course. She didn't want to miss, after all.

"Mark, do you have any ideas? I'm running out." She informed her co-pilot, sighing as she fired another round at a Dark Demon.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Let's just keep up the storm," Mark replied, a little sour that his missile barrage ended up causing little damage, "No relenting, kitty."

To punctuate his thought, Mark dove in with the feathers on the Dark Demon Taela was shooting at, firing a blistering barrage of his own.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Just keep digging through it all." the brassy voiced Neko ordered. Kelly, even with an arm broken, was at it with the rest of the away team, all reduced from Elite Troops to Manual Laborers. He glared at her as a small volumetric device she carried continued to display the fight in real time.

"Why are we doing this exactly? I don't see how digging through your wrecked shuttle is going to help us any." The dark skinned Nepleslian bitterly spoke.

"Of course you don't. And I never did say it would help. Now keep digging." She snapped. "I want that lockbox as soon as possible; even plasma will have had a hard time damaging it."

"It'd better be a bottle of Deus Ex Machina." Kelly jeered. Yuno's faceless stare replied to him with silence. Kelly kept on digging.

*****

She wasn't entirely sure what was happening outside, but she had finished moving a decent amount of ammunition to the ready racks in the hangar, as well as happily duct taping more to the floor. Yoshiko now faced a grim prospect she had intended to hold off as long as possible; cleanup. She stood there in front of the elevator as a red fluid dripped out. "Hit...hit it Ged." The elevator screeched upwards, revealing the mess underneath to her.

She mewled in dispair. "M-maybe I'll clean up the barracks first."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Unfortunately for Yoshiko, the cleaning would have to wait, as Ged responded to her "I would prefer you found your rifle again, we will be boarded in a manner of moments." The AI's speaker-based voiced sounded a bit grim.

******

@synch was lucky to have her full barrier, as it managed to stop the point-blank direct hits from the Aether cannons of the CD she charged, but from this vantage, the freespacer could see that that was about all they would do for the moment, and then the CD Boosted straight towards the Asura. The chain straight managed to chop off its legs, but that didn't slow down the PA in the slightest, and instead point-blank Plinking and rending as the Type one in its sub-arms began firing madly, then the CD's shield forearms knocked two of the sub-arms out of the way, allowing the vibro-claws to get to work on the frontal armor.

@synch was saved, however, by the second set of Sub-arms stabbing up and into the CD from behind, finally taking out its pilot. damage readouts were going haywire, as two of her sub-arms were gone and the front hatch had now been jammed shut from the major damage those claws had done, which had also reduced her armor effectiveness to next to nothing.

******

Victoria seemed to have the right idea, as her munitions, when they arrived on target, began popping shield bubbles and damaging armors, but it wasn't enough, and the armors on the far side from her were unmolested and made their way into the ship regardless of what the Abwehran did.

Unfortunately, holding back wasn't something they could afford at this point, and Victoria, distracted as she was guarding the airlock, missed one of the CD's careening into her, blasting her shields open, and then starting to hack at one of her shoulders.

******

Lucien's despoerate gamble with the ammunition payed off, as the sheer volume of fire, exhausting nearly his entire supply of ammo, did a number on the nearby demons, Crooked and Dark alike. Unfortunately, he only managed to destroy DD's, damaging the CD's, and leaving himself vulnerable for the next round if he didn't do something. The PAWN-IES reminded him that he had energy weapons built into the frame.

******

The teamwork of Mark and Teala proved devastating to the DD's they targeted, each one going down swiftly in a blaze, and rightly so the DD's stayed away from the Kirin- however, the Kirin's weren't their objective, the ship was, and they left the frames to the CD's, which were much, much better at it. Having ignored the CD's to focus on the DD's, the Kirin's AI notified them just in time to see their shields drop to zero and an aether beam to penetrate their right thigh that a CD had targeted them.

******

Shinji and Meena were in a bad way. Both of them conservative fighters, they had tried to maintain distance, but it hadn't really worked to their benefit. Now their Kirin was alone, closer to the Yui than anyone else, and under fire from both the Zilants and CD's. As their shields zapped down to nothing, Shinji unleashed a barrage of every weapon on the frame as fast as it could fire, hoping it would do something, and then Meena 'dove' below the plane of battle, trying to escape from the nightmare of shells and Aether they had managed to get into.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Wieder verdamnt!" sweared Vici again as one of enemy armours latched to her shoulder. "Stirb du bastard!" Vici shouted and boosted a little towards on of Atuans airlock while pointin her mechas head towards enemy and opening fire from both of mounted Gamma Ray Vulcans. She pressed enemy against Atuan with her shoulder and then started hacking at it with her forearm blade, while blocking airlock with her own mecha. This battle seemed lost but she won't give up just yet.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Oh."

One word made its way out of the Neko pilot's mouth as she felt the shock of the leg being run through by Aether.

"Oh dear."

She quickly refocused her aim to the Crooked Demons, remembering that they were much more of a threat than the Dark Demons, offensively. Her momentary lapse in mental tactics completed itself, just as she realized this, and she began taking whatever shots she could, as quickly as she could, and as accurately. While dodging, of course.

"Mark, focus your aim on the CDs! If you're out of ammo, then at least turn the Feathers into shields or rams! We won't last much longer if. . . Nevermind that, just do it!" Taela told her partner decisively, exhaling before taking another shot. Opening up the communications with the bridge, she barked, "We are getting battered out here! Is the ship completely out of offensive power from that last battle? And what do these people even want?!"

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Mark made no reply to Taela. Truly, he'd already started turning the feathers on the Crooked Demons as soon as he realized their mistake. Nonetheless, he was feeling very stupid at the moment. There must be something to it, something too the way they were acting. His thoughts turned to investigative journalism, and the times he'd been attacked. Why would someone attack with no provocation? What must they have hidden up their sleeve?

"Maybe we found something we weren't supposed to see." Mark offered, sweat sliding down his head and gathering at his collar, "And maybe they think we actually know what it is."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Asynch threw her spent enemy away, Yoshiko's frame's own trajectory shifting from the reaction, entire panels of armor from the Asura drifting away on their own course alongside shrapnel and semi-molten amoebas from the Crooked Demon. "I- I don't like this anymore," the Freespacer whimpered to herself, pulling away from any combatants and engaging targets opportunistically rather than in her normal aggressive fashion. Weapons fire opened up from the frame's various emplacements sporadically now, sparing ammunition where it counted, and letting off longer bursts where the weapons drew power directly from the mecha's powerplant.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Warning! You are out of Ammo - Again
Suggestion: Use Energy Weapons
Observation: Is this going to be a habit, Lucien?

"Shut up!" Lucien scolded the AI for its observation on the Scotsman's reckless use of ammunition. In his mind, ammunition was made to be spent rather than go unstable with time.

Either way, the AI was right. He did have energy weapons. Well, he had an energy weapon, which when compared to what he was firing before could be categorised as 'piss-weak'. Gamma Ray vulcans and Ultraviolet Pulses only going to keep the Scotsman alive as long as he had power, and his power allocated to his weapons was starting to drain.

"Shinji, wot do we do now?!" He asked his de-facto leader.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"I guess this is it." He muttered. If the Atuan went down, they were all going to be stranded and at the mercy of the enemy forces in orbit. Kelly sat with the others of the OriSec Away Team, mutely watching the volumetric footage of the ensuing battle, wincing as the Pink frame was pummeled. The Nepleslian reminded himself that it wasn't Yoshiko in there. It was @synch. No. That didn't make it any better. The thought made him feel even worse than before, causing Kelly to spiral deeper down into despair. The screeching creek of metal being torn back jostled Kelly out of his dark pit though; Yuno had finally managed to open the scorched lockbox, and extract it's contents. Kelly pried his eyes away from the battle, and turned them to the Neko.

"Well, it's not going to solve all our problems, but if you really want to, this'll make it feel like nothing's wrong in the world." Yuno's strong voice spoke, softening. In her arms was a single bottle of Lorath wine, cradled in a rich red velvet cloth like a newborn child. At this Kelly started, surprised.

"Is that?"

"Yes. I still remember you filching this. Never felt the right time to open it came around, well, until now that is." Yuno went on, a wry smile on her face. "What do you boys say?"

Soon enough, the group sat in relative silence, gently sipping at the wine as the scene flickered and flashed. The loosing battle went on, but they were happy, if only for the moment.

*****

The internal camera's feed was a little grainy, but otherwise watchable. It's lens focused on a single Impulse clad figure as she fought off the boarders before finally succumbing. A young Yamataian girl dragged herself out of the wreaked armor as blood wept from an eye. As the slim, figure barely managed to get onto it's two feet, another menacing Demon rounded the corner and shoved through the bodies.

It's laughter echoed through the hallway as Yoshiko cowered.

Re: Episode 5: Taps

There was a slight flicker in space, followed by the pulse and glitter of beam weaponry that smashed against the Yui's shields. In the moment later when space normalized, the image of a large cruiser of verdigris glass and matte brass seemed to materialize as if the light it released was suddenly released. The vessel strode forward, beam turrets pulsing and repeatedly smashing the smaller vessel until the pirate craft's hull ensconced in a crackling corona of blue and white.

With the Yui's attention firmly in hand, the still unannounced vessel pressed the attack, began to scramble vehicles to intervene on the continuing battle. Dozens of frames and powered armor poured out of the vessel, gliding through space towards the embattled Atuan. Light danced across their ornate shapes as they launched swarms of attack drones and scattered beam fire over the attacking Crooked Demon formations.

"OIF Atuan, this is the Seigan Solutions mercenary vessel ISC Keren. Corporate has hired us to provide support during this operation."

The voice was that of an older man, strangely accented, but stern and thoroughly professional. "We will be intervening now."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Taela was silent for a few moments and was likewise immobile as the mercenaries materialized. She watched as they began their assault on the Yui's and Demon Armors' forces, not even firing anymore. It was, to say the least, nothing short of a miracle for the Neko, and a sigh let out afterwards encompassed this feeling of relief. Opening up communications again, she asked, "Bridge, are we allowed to return to the Atuan? We've got a gaping hole in our leg."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

"Wait a minute, Kitty." Mark interjected just as Taela finished her request, "Why don't we get behind them and let them draw the fire while I ramp up the CECS and try to reacquire Captain Cornrow's Signal? We lost comms with them when this whole mess hit the fan. I bet I can bring 'em back, though."

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Lucien blinked as he watched the source of his most immediate problems go down in a blazing ball of explosions, ripping the crooked demons to shreds before him.

He blinked for a moment at the ISC Keren and scratched his head as he radioed a reply to the ship, "Fock me mate, yer more than welcome to intervene!" He then scratched his chin, "Remind me t' buy ya a round if we survive this!"

He then radioed the Atuan, "Oi, 'ooever's alive. Now that th' cavalry 'as shown up, shall I head back to roost fer a few, or do ya want me t' continue fightin' the fightey fight?"

Re: Episode 5: Taps

Vici finished grinding enemz demon against the hull of the Atuan. She then saw welcomed help. "Meine freunde, don'T toss you rifles away yet. Ich kann nicht if you noticed but we had boarders!" she said over comm. "I am heading to hangar, prepare some big gun for me there, I am already in Impulsu armour." She said into communication. She was ussualy good in listening orders but she had none at this time.

She still had enough ammo in he mecha but she want it to be ready for any emergency. Like third Yui showing up. ISC Keren will hande itself and VIci is more needed inside. She did not know about other but she was trainged infantrywoman and could help a lot.