RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 7: Mine

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Mark, do whatever you can to get those transmissions up to the Atuan," Taela commanded, using her thrusters to pull her to the elevator shaft. For every crawler in her way, they either got rammed into the wall with the makeshift bodyshield or shot several times in the face with the rifle. Anything else got potshotted by autocannons and pulsed lasers. Once safety greeted the neko and her passengers, she flipped around and covered the exit, protecting the elevator by eliminating anything that even so much as twisted the wrong way towards her.

"Everybody get in, NOW!" She hissed.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viktoria smiled as she helped Yoshiko deal with last standing frame. "Alles gutt Kleine-Katze?" Viki asked Yoshiko on the channel, but there were soon more troubles to be had. Viki quickly loaded up her shotgun-cannon.

"Alle in the elevators. I am will cover you!" She shouted on the squad-channel and fired two EMP-cloud missiles into the bundle of crawling frames. Her shotgun then raised and she started blasting at them while, she walked back covering everyone's retreat.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

When you had two forces fighting each other with completely equal strength, it became less of a matter of who had more firepower compared to the other, and more of a matter of who wanted victory more. Remove that variable, and you'd have a perfect battle - that is, both sides destroy each other completely.

The question here was how much the artificial intelligence piloting the black Ashigaru wanted to seize victory from Lucien. This was not going to be a perfect battle as only one was going to walk away from this. Lucien pressed his advantage by moving in, grabbing the enemy frame by the neck and shoulders, hooking its knee out from under it and holding the enemy frame's head down.

The next thing he did as his movements had momentum was to start smashing the frame's face in against his knee. There was no more chivalry left in this battle as Lucien smashed the black knight's face in, intent to kill it.

The black Ashigaru had fibre optics and superconductors to reroute its fear of pain. Lucien McGarland had nerves of durandium.

His fist fell from above and smashed into the small of its back. He was hell bent on splitting the beast in half and getting away.

"Ae wait fer me!" He yelled as he made his retreat from his handiwork.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Power armors ran into the elevator as three-inch autocannons roared.

Crawling frames in Taela's way were decapitated as short bursts were let loose into their faces, or otherwise smashed about and stomped into the curb underneath. "These boots were made for stomping, that's what they do~" Kelly sang along to Taela's stomping - Mark's hands furiously worked the controls to signal for the Atuan, but no dice! They were in too deep!

"Then bounce it off the infil-team up there!" Yoshiko called out, her own pink frame tearing its wicked long claws out of a fallen enemy. "If that doesn't work, just set it to auto!" she quickly added - her sentence was punctuated by a boom as Victoria's gauss cannon took chunks out of her enemies, the weapon's pump-action working hard as one massive shell after another was loaded into the breech, covering their retreat.

Lucien finally broke free for good, smashing its face in against his own mecha's knee with the most satisfying crunch - the shattering, crackling ADNR was crisp and clear in his ears as the sound entered through the frame-finger-hole in his cockpit. A deliciously warm feeling of victory melted through his body like heat from taking a shot of whiskey in the middle of a cold winter as his own frame boarded the elevator, the doors coming to a close.

"YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY? I'M NOT LETTING YOU GET AWAY FREE!"

Her threat hung in the air as the frame team ascended - for just a few precious moments, they had time to breath. And reload! But it was flittering and brief...

"Get ready everyone! I, uh, need reports on...status, yeah! Status everyone?!" Yoshiko followed up.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Well, my mecha is beginning to look like a hat that's been sat on, but we're still fairly operative. And with a few Feathers left. Not many," Taela sighed, reloading her rifle. "Isn't there a horde of HiGA crapbots waiting for us up there?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viki moved to the elevator with others. Now this was adrenaline situation if she saw any. She loved it, the feeling of being in rush and danger. Nothing was like that. Not even sex. With a smile on her lips, she started loading her gun again. She was slowly getting low on ammo, which was problem.

"Viki here," she started her report. "I am getting low on ammo for my primary gun. Had only last EMP cloud missiles left and my fuel system was damaged. I closed it off and it is not causing any problems. Yet. Other than that Ich bin awesome."

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Bounce the signal, she tells me." Mark muttered over the controls, "Like that's some kinda thang..."

Mark took the necessary second to squint to Kelly in false confusion before his eyes bugged out like a frog struck by lightning, and he shouted with sudden inspiration, "But I can try to use them as a relay for it! I just gotta alter transmission so each packet sends its instructions with it!"

Almost instantly, Mark fingers prodded and squeezed around Kelly's torso, stretching to reach even the odds and ends he normally didn't twist or press on the console. After a few moments, he had a proper signal set up-- and the transmission was on its way. The rest, as they don't say, was up to a higher power and the laws of physics.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Oi! Look 'a me - boom, 'eadshot!" Lucien yelled through his cockpit to whoever could hear him outside of his frame, while turning the frame's head around so everyone could get a full view of the Scotsman sitting inside the frame with one leg resting on his knee, one hand off of the right control orb and tapping the side of his head, his expression wry.

"'side from th' flow-thru ven'ilation from flat-face o'er there, everythin's jus' fookin' dandy." He relayed over radio and as far as anyone would hear him as he took stock of his Frame's inventory. He wondered if the barrel of that 50mm gauss pistol he was using would ever decide to warp from all the shots fired through it in the past hour or so. His sword was picked up on the way to the elevator - knowing that he couldn't leave the thing behind.

He did wonder if he'd get a chance to make that woman eat her words in the near future - if not, it was something HR could sort out in the morning.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

It was possibly the happiest elevator in the universe right now.

Or, at least, that was how Kelly felt at the moment! Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Possibly horribly wrong. How wrong? Using another mech's viewpoint, he looked the frame that Taela and Mark's and yours truly all shared as she spoke. The flat little Neko wasn't kidding - her frame did look like someone sat on it! Like a cake that was inside a box, but a careless friend sat on top of by accident, then relegated to shooting practice with a pellet gun.

Sort of.

Yoshiko's was beaten up, scraped and prodded at several points, but all seemingly superficial. And then Victoria's frame! Looking her up and down, he could see a large gash where several claws had skewered her frame at the waist. This alone would be considered horrific damage, but then the dark skinned Nepleslian turned to look at Lucien's. "Lucien, what the #&$% happened to you man?!" he squawked in shock, realizing the other man's frame looked like it had been visited by a serial killer.

Instinctively, he then turned to look at the most silent of the group - Shinji and Meena. The armor on that one was, well, in comparison to everyone else? It was spotless. Yes, there was damage from rocket impacts here, holes melted by lasers and slugs there, but, otherwise, they were fine. Kelly wanted to completely drop his jaw, but said nothing and thought back - it hit him. Thinking through the drug clouded memories, those two were there the whole time, shooting at everything that moved...while everyone else acted as meat shield in the close quarters.

It couldn't be helped - with how tightly packed they were all, how could have an extra frame moved to the front to take the blows? Thanking whatever god, gods, goddess or goddesses (he hoped that one was was the case), Kelly looked up, and saw numerous Demons on each doorway to the floors up above them staring down at the elevator, getting ready to fire.

"Shit, god's pissing on us."

"Everyone, fly up the shaft, now! Blow the doors!" Yoshiko yelled.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

When life gave you lemons, one man propositioned that you made life take the lemons back and burn their house down with them. Lucien had some other plans with the small lemons that were lining the elevator shaft and attempting to take potshots at the Frame Team. Lucien knew he was the most vulnerable of them since he had a hole in his frame's head - a stray round from one of those could put him out for good.

"Carn! Go GO GO!"

He used his left hand to cover the hole, and activated the thrusters and then thought very hard about flying towards freedom and leading the Frame Team's escape. That thought lead to the afterburners kicking in and propelling his frame diagonally through the shaft to a maximum speed of two hundred and sixty kilometres an hour with an absurd amount of acceleration.

And the doors? His missiles, mini or normal sized could take care of that if Yoshiko's prediction was right. It was a thought that continuously crossed his mind as half of the world turned into streaks around him. If there was a door, he'd have to pause and fire - or risk going right through it and leaving a Frame-Shaped hole.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viki was breathing evenly and in a balanced manner. Inhale, exhale. It was a way of calming herself a bit. She still felt adrenaline coursing in her blood and they were likely to fall into another action right away. Exhausting herself would do no good.

Viki reloaded her Gauss shot-cannon and placed in her Frame's back. She took the 50mm gauss instead. She need to save ammo for the big gun. The smaller ones will have to do, she will just have to aim better.

And then it begun again. Viki looked up too. Demons were there. "Verdamnnt!" She shouted and open fire, spraying them with 50mm shells as she moved to follow Lucien.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"When I said, 'Higa crapbots waiting up there,' this is NOT what I MEANT!" Taela hissed, igniting her Frame's thrusters and heading skyward. Instead of aiming directly at any Demons, however, her auto-targeting was aimed at the ground just below them. Doorways are a naturally reinforced point of a room. Which meant heavier and stronger materials. Which meant a well-placed shot could cause a collapse.

"Where the hell are we going?" She barked.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

As the team rocketed up the elevator shaft, streams of dancing yellow fire leaped out at them from the levels they blew by.

The almost random hail of gunfire peppered the entire group as a whole during their ascent, the Impulses darting between the large frames for cover. It wasn't one sided however! Demons from above pitched forward and plummeted as they were struck by autocannon or lasers, tumbling down the shaft before horrifically smashing across the frames and tumbling into the void below. But this utter chaos ended almost as quickly as it began; the group landed at the ground floor of the facility.

And right at the doors Yoshiko was so eager to blow up earlier - plus a few more leading off to who knows where.

"I still got my missiles!" the Ex-Neko roared with a grin - picking a path, the explosives lanced forward and blasted her selection right off their hinges, only to reveal an abnormally large, atrium within a skyskraper. Not too surprising, it was roomy enough for frames to stroll through, and shaped to funnel into three different passageways that lead to the streets outside. Considering it was HIGA's business concerning frames, it made sense, but that wasn't what really mattered! Up high, a crossfire at the highest level could be seen as gauss rifles fired back at Demon chainguns.

"That's gotta be them," Kelly noted solemnly, his eyes still a little hazy from the long trip he took.

"YOU IDIOTS! THEY'RE RIGHT THERE! JUST STORM IN THERE AND GET THEM ALREADY!" the screeching woman's voice yelled over the building's intercoms.

Outside the HIGA building's exits, grey forms originally thought to be decor began to turn - two at each passageway. And things didn't stop getting more and more tangled either; a familiar, genteel voice spoke to them all across their comms.

"Well. It seems that we'll be bringing the Atuan into the drive-thru in a few minutes - I hope you all got everything we came here for?" Ged asked. "Otherwise, next pickup will likely be in, well, I honestly don't know," the AI admitted.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Argh, we're running low on everything!" Taela hissed, reloading one last time as they landed. "I'll head for the infiltration team. . . if anybody else wants to help, do it."

She did exactly that, jetting over in a few seconds to encounter the Demons. Where her bullets did not reach, her feet did in an attempt to squash the smaller Armors like bugs.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Ya I got wot I came fer," Lucien replied to Ged before hearing the shrill woman's voice. Mouthing an obscenity, he shot out the nearest Intercom speaker with a pair of 50mm rounds and sighed a sigh of relief. "Ae that's better." He smiled before he continued ahead with his game face on.

Seek Repair! Frame currently outside nominal operation parameters!

One, two, three, four, five, another. Well, this wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, given that everyone's ammo supplies were dwindling, and their hulls busted, and their shields depleted. "Oi, Infiltr'tion team," he radioed to the other Origin frame team in the area with his eloquent voice, "Give us an update! Th' Atuan's 'bout to come round 'n get our arse outta this, so wrap it up! I'm comin' ta help!"

Lucien rocketed up with Taela to get to the infiltration team, sending the occasional minimissile or 50mm Gauss slug at a Demon as he was rocketing up. Occasional, because he had to keep the hole in his Frame's head covered, and because he was rocketing upwards.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Viktoria reloaded her 50mm SMG cannon. It was only gun she had enough ammo for. Her 300 mm had last few rounds, she had not mini-missiles. Her hull weaponry at least still had ammo. If it was not destroyed.

"We cannot just leave inflitration team behind." Viki said simply.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Hey, I got a thought." Mark burst out suddenly, pretty much shattering any hope of recovery for Kelly's eardrums, "Do you think the feathers have enough power in them to close up this shaft if I crash them into the supports at full power?"

Instead of waiting for his answer, Mark began work on calibrating the launch angles for the feathers in order to fracture the walls of the elevator just before they passed over them, allowing the elevator rails to escape untouched from their location and up.

"Just..." Mark's hand hovered over the final key to press, "Will it even work?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Thrusters flaring to life, the frames took off and rocketed straight up the hollow length of the skyscraper.

The approaching enemy frames, all chicken walkers, fired their guns up after the departing team, but their guns couldn't traverse high enough to hit! "We're all right behind you Taela!" Yoshiko called out after the Neko. At Lucien's words, the comms sounded to life. The din of autocannons and gauss rifles firing back could be heard over them as the fight grew closer and closer as they all ascended, and a familiar voice chattered over the comms.

"God damn, what took you guys so long?! We're almost out of ammo!" Coffee shouted at them all. "Hurry up and just beat the shit out of those bastards in Demons! And smash the bigass skylight so we can al Gee Tee Eff Oh while you're at it!" she frantically yelled, real fear in her voice - in the background, another voice yelled out to the others.

"I'm out!"

The sound of an empty magazine being discarded lost in the chaos. One that reflected confusion and a hint of fear in Kelly's own voice. "How the hell should I know man?" The Nepleslian was recovering from the bad meds, but the situation wasn't exactly speeding along a smooth recovery. "What do I look like, an architect?! Just blow the joint with their reactors if you're so worried about it!"

Right at that, the frames rose right into the firefight of rifles and power armors, coming into view like leviathans emerging from the water!

In shock at their entrance, hostile rifles turned on them.

Re: Episode 7: Mine

Taela was sick of this. The perpetual fight. This obnoxious conflict. Stupid corporate intrigue. Always on the wire, with near death experiences at every turn. So when she was stuck there, with an increasingly damaged mecha with only one clip left and a handful of really bad built-in weapons, versus a horde of enemy machines from a company that ought to have gone under ages ago, there really was only one option.

"I am TIRED of the motherf**king Demons in this motherf**king factory!" She swore, pulling out a scuffed up Chain Straight and dashing towards the horde of enemy Power Armor. As she approached, she fired shots from her rifle at anything that decided to draw a bead on her, in addition punting and slashing things that decided to stand a little too close. "Mark, if you have any feathers left, raise the goddamn roof!"

Re: Episode 7: Mine

"Ae y'know wot's funny?" Lucien remarked over the din as he found that, dramatically appropriately, he was on his last magazine of 50mm gauss. "Swords dun' run outta ammo." In addition, he only had enough missiles to manage one more damaging salvo. This on top of the condition of his frame made him wonder how much of an earbashing he was going to get from the repair crews.

If he and the others survived, of course. Maybe he'd get to keep the damaged head as a memento because a Frame helmet with a slash through it makes a great conversation piece. Or maybe...

Maybe he could stop thinking about that, and proceed to stab, bash, missile and gauss his way towards the beleaguered Infiltration team, and spent a moment firing missiles upwards wildly to smash the skylight into little pieces.

The last thing that crossed his mind was what the skylight was made of, exactly. Could it just be glass? Bulletproof glass? Plastic? Bulletproof plastic? Transparent Durandium? Transparent Zesuaium? Cotton Candy Fibres interleaved into something that resembled any of the above? Oh well, the first missile to hit it would give him an answer.