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

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Awww, Fock, that thing looks way biggah down hea than it eva did in Space" Shinji commented, noticing that the restricted space in this jungle prevented him from using the Kirin's feathers.

"Meena! Shoot 'im in da face right soon and ever'tin!" the Yamataian called to his pilot, who did her best to comply swiftly, raising her Plasma rifle and leveling it up at the towering Zilant's head, which was clustered with nearly all the enemy Frame's sensors. She fired once, twice, three times, hoping at least one of them would hit.

"Ensign, What do we do about the small fry?" Meena asked Kelly over the comms, as the frame's Point Defense weapons began opening up to try and keep enemy heads down for the moment.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Can the Feathers operate in atmo?" Mark asked nervously. He kept his hand on their controls, waiting in anticipation for the response. "There's not much room for them out here. Scratch that, I'll just break into the enemy's comms channel."

Now this was a skill he was accustomed to using. Deft hands flicked all the neccesary switches and tuned the obligatory dial, while the frame's modified CECS began its sweep. Mark smiled from ear to ear as he whispered to himself, "Let's hope they're using encrypted data. I love it when they try to use encryption."

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viki smiled as she used boosters to slow down her boosters. It seemed Kelly was still resisting her and that made it more fun. But she will definitely have him in future. And if not, it would not be problem. There are others, Yoshiko was cute little thing for example.

Landing disrupted Viktoria's chain of thoughts as she ruptured though leaves and branches of big trees. She held her 300mili gauss cannon and looked around. She was sure enemy would notice their arrival, after all several metallic fireballs descending through the sky would ussualy get attention. And she was right, enemy soon showed up. Zilant accompanied by Power armours.

"Haha! Here we go!" Viki said, kneeld and aimed carefully at Zilants right knee. She fired one APHE round, wanting to see how effective the weapon is again enemy mecha's shield. "YO PA guys, you got demons to handle. If you need back-up you just need to ask." She commed.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Lucien's landing was just as graceful as his entry into the cockpit of his Asura. That is, to say, as graceful as a swan falling down stairs. In spite of this, he was still able to launch with the others.

Looking up at the thirty metre tall Zillant and its power armour retinue would be an interesting proposition, "Lissen, methinks that we take out the little guys and then I'mma cut this bastard's leg off and we'll finish 'im while he's down!"

He would contribute by shooting at the various power armours with little reason or rhyme. He was making short, controlled bursts at each one he could within reason, but he continually shifted targets and firing positions, so as to remain unpredictable.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Camellia lead her infiltration team to the treeline as fast as she could when the anti-air offensive began and they cleared their stratosphere dive, grumbling to herself about the stupidity of taking loudly colored and gigantic targets into an orbital drop situation. The armors should have dropped first, being smaller targets and the frames should have held back as high altitude defenses until contact with the tree line.

But that was her five years as a military armor specialist talking.

As soon as her armor unit made land contact she turned to them to take a tally if any were shot down during their fast decent. "This is infiltration team One." Camellia said over the shared comms. "All units are accounted for, we'll make for the facility while you guys tango with the Zilant." Switching to a frequency for the armors alone, she turned back to her unit.

"This is it folks, all guns hot. I want a scout at Noon, two flanking at two and ten, one taking six and the others keeping to the center." Her armored hands using signals mimicking her orders. " If you get any clean shots that can down anyone in one shot, your allowed to take it. Maximum fire power is authorized for all such kills. We don't want people flattened, we want them down and not getting back up." With that said, she turned her back to the armors. "Let's move out."

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

It was no Delsaurian Standoff, that was for sure.

As soon as the two forces met, they opened fire. Insubstantial autocannon fire briefly pelted the frames' shields, but quickly diverted as the Impulses started firing at the Demons, leaving the giants to fight amongst themselves.

Taela's shots from her heavy pulse laser cannons were intercepted by one of the Zilant's shield drones - the pulses pierced the threshold diminished, but bored holes into the chest, sending sparks flying everywhere and setting fire to the forest floor. However, the Neko's backwards flying sent her right into a tree, uprooting it and sending it flying down into the Impulse armored security troops behind them. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" a gruff voice yelled as she flew over them.

The shield drone quickly overloaded and crashed to the ground smoking as soon as Meena's first pulsing beam of blue hot plasma splashed against the shield. The following two couldn't miss a target that large, but it had already started moving forward. Her second shot pierced right through the chest and lanced out of the back, sending hot, molten metal dripping onto the forest floor. The third hit it square on the right eye and punched a liquid metal bleeding wound through the skull. But it kept on coming.

Right at the brightest target in the forest - the pink frame that Kelly was piloting. The lumbering gauss cannon-rifle that it held squared off on him and boomed, sending a massive shell hurtling toward the Nepleslian as he dodged to the right with his thrusters. As it hit the shields and shoved through the protective threshold, it grazed the side of his mech and sent it into a chaotic spin. "Shit!"

Victoria got quite a show; the second of the Scimitar sized drones moved to intercept the round; the shields simply died as the massive 12 inch shell literally gutted the drone as it passed cleanly through to lodge itself in the Zilant's kneecap. The entire forest rippled as both the shell and drone exploded simultaneously. Knee joint exposed, it ponderously charged through the smoke. The Zilant kept on coming.

In a flicker of time, Lucien could see a brief glimpse of a tennis-ball sized hole simply appearing in a Demon's chest. But as the rest of the burst from his 75mm Auto-Gauss hit, the power armor simply vanished as the rounds smashed through and exploded in the dirt behind it, enshrouding the ruined armor. The second Demon, he could briefly see dance as the rounds passed through before it too was enshrouded by the rounds detonating

All this, in just a handful of seconds.

Kelly's pink frame smashed into the side of Lucien's as he dodged the first shell, knocking his frame over and throwing the man's aim off. The burst of fire meant for the third became a stitching of craters, sending the spared Demon running for better cover. "Shit, sorry!" Kelly quickly cued the comms. He quickly grabbed his own frame's sidearm and fired at the Zilant as his frame thundered away on foot to keep its attention on him. Sparks flew as the rounds punctured the giant mech's chest. "Spread out! We're too close up!" he called to the frames. "Just focus on that big f***er! The Impulses will deal with the small fry!"

As Kelly barked out orders, a giant sword cleaved down through the air and smashed into the earth, shaking the ground with its impact. "Why's it going after me?!" He yelled, indignant.

****

"Yes, they work in atmosphere! Don't you remember them working in Dawn station?" Yoshiko called out to Mark. She was in the rear of the frame formation, but couldn't get a clear shot since they were too close. When Mark told what he was doing, she couldn't help but half-mindlessly reply to him as she moved to a better position. "That sounds great Mark!" the ex-Neko replied to the man over her shoulder.

As the man did that and quickly cracked their lightly encrypted comms, a gravely voice could be heard. "We've located those pricks! Relaying their position! They're - "

"Jam it! Jam it! Jam it!" Yoshiko yelled out to Mark in a panic.

****

Camellia's squad of six, including herself, detached from the fighting and moved off to the side in an attempt to sneak past the op-for. They made headway when the pointwoman Camellia had in lead ran head first into a Demon as it emerged through some bushes. Gunfire roared as the Gauss rifle in her hand walked up the chest and blew the head off, splattering her in gore.

As the Demon fell to its knees, autocannon fire quickly raked over the pointwoman's shields as she dove for the cover of a large knotted root. The still partially standing body shielding her from the worst of the initial barrage which swept back and forward.

A squad of eight Demons had tried to flank the noisy group of Frames and instead ran headfirst into Camellia's squad.

****

This. All this carnage happened in just a hand's worth of seconds.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Before Yoshiko even finished speaking, Mark had already been mashing buttons to send a different kind of message. He tagged the frequency and broadcast a new sound over the waves being sent by the enemy combatant. Before the location was relayed, or even mentioned in short, smooth jazz filled the airways, broadcast on every frequency the enemies were using.

The friendly elevator music sound was completed with Mark's perfect delivery of a Nepleslian radio station-break. "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with the broadcast on XM thirteen o' nine point three, and will return you to your regularly scheduled programming shortly. For now, enjoy the smooth sounds of Frankly Funky and his amazing intergalactic band..." His smooth baritone reported over the radios in every enemy vehicle.

Mark tuned up the music a little and flushed a few more of the outlying frequencies with it, before turning to the controls for the Feathers. With the newly felled trees in the area, he had enough room to deploy them and get them clear of the treeline before taking new potshots at the Zilant from above.

"That oughta hold 'em for a while."

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viktoria smiled as she scored direct hit. Powerful gun recoiled, sending it'S barrel to the sky. But that was okay, it made it all the easier to pump it. Not like it put any strain on Viki, or Blitzkrieg had problems with it.

"Hey Power Armou guys, I am giving you heads-up. I am trying to topple the Zilant and get it on its back. Be careful, I would hate to see any of you being squashed under!" She then took aim at Zilant's now uncovered knees.

She locked three of her EMP missiles and fired them at the place to disperse mecha's shielding. She then fired her 300mm gauss cannon afterwards aiming at the enemy's knee.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Lucien reacted to the bump from Kelly with relative jest before putting some distance between himself and the cornrowed captain, "My bad!" He now augmented his unpredictable aim with even more unpredictable movement - but the two appeared to be mutually exclusive since aiming and moving quickly were very hard to do - properly.

He then heard Viki's plan to topple the giant Frame, "Good plan!" He complimented before following her example and providing that little bit of extra support. However, he started holding the weapon with only one hand, and drew the Frame sized longsword from its sheath, akin to a swashbuckling pirate.

He hoped that once the Zilant had fallen down, he could get a few hits in with the sword for the sake of catharsis.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"shit! Wat is dis thin', a Zombie or somthin?" Shinji exclaimed, at a loss for what was happening. "Hit it wit' somethin bigger, Meena!" he pleaded to his pilot, before remembering he was in charge of missiles. "oh, right..." he muttered, in response to nothing more than Meena turning her head toward him questioningly.

"Hit 'em in da ladyparts!" he then yelled over the comms, just because he could, as the Kirin fired off a salvo of missiles to add to Meena's precision plasma-rifle fire.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

The very earth underfoot shook with rage.

As the giant of a frame dashed forward, the Demon PA alongside and behind it tried to do the same - closing the distance between them and the Ori-Frames meant they could wreck absolute havoc in their blind spots. A hard hail of gauss rifle fire penetrated across one's chest, littering the plate with a mix of holes and craters - it fell however, as a fountain of blood gushed out from under the helmet as a lonely round bounced off the upper chest armor and ricocheted inside. Even before the corpse inside of the lead lined refrigerator hit the ground, the others had dashed for cover, deadlocked with their Origin counterparts, yet slowly losing ground as the giants warred.

*****

Purple flashes and beams cut down from above, only to quickly bore through the insubstantial armor of the Zilant at numerous points as the Feathers darted about. One of them quickly crashed through a tree despite the additional space caused by the battle, it's pulses stitching across the armor and damaging the cannon mounted on its shoulder as it briefly spun out of control. With a ding in its hull, the feather dashed haphazardly back into the battle.

It ignored this, as the giant sword cleaved through the air and chopped over several of the large pine-like trees as it came after Kelly, nearly cutting Lucien in half in the process. As the cornrowed pilot dashed away, gun blazing, it quickly shifted targets to Lucien - just then, EMP missiles detonated directly against the hull. Without anymore shield drones, the thing was wide open to attack. And attack it did!

The weapon cleaved downwards at the Scotsman's frame, an adult using a longsword on a todder, but another boom rang through the forest and it's knee gave out in an explosion of flying metal and debris. Lucien was able to sidestep the blade, but it managed to sweep it sideways, smashing it into both him and Victoria; the two were sent flying by the flat of the blade, tumbling through trees several feet thick as though they were saplings.

Though it was trying to get up again, everyone could see the damage they were doing all added up as large portions of its interior could be seen. "Goddess! It's nearly hollow inside! It's just armor on top of a literal frame for crying out loud!" Yoshiko exclaimed over the comms. As it started to get onto it's feet again however, Kelly barked out a fast order at them all.

"Quick! Go for the last leg!" the Ensign yelled. Yoshiko was the first on the ball and opened up with her plasma rifle; lances of blue white collided with the alloy of it's armored kneecap. Metal sparked then vaporized as the destructive particles ate their way though the armor before Kelly added his own fire to the mix, punching massive, fist sized holes along, above and below the joint.

Missiles and more plasma struck the thing in the knee and crotch as Shinji and Meena added to the fire. But it didn't stop. Not yet. Not now. It continued to crawl after them on all fours, swatting at them with a sword several times longer than they were tall. The Demons dead, the Impulses fled before it's rampage, thrusters flaring to get them out of the way in time. The Zilant's point defenses were opening up on everything that moved at random; it's gauss cannon leveled at Yoshiko and fired, exploding in the process but also flooring her and Mark.

The Kirin was literally knocked off it's feet and sent into a backwards tumble before coming to a rest, it's chestplate crumpled in, shields completely gone.

Inside the cockpit, Mark could see Yoshiko slumped forward in her chair's harness.

"Shit! Don't stop now!" Kelly roared from his Pink Frame.

*****

Meanwhile, the infiltration and retrieval squad sneaked away after finishing off their random encounter

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Shinji and Meena's Kirin backpedaled as the toppled Zilant came thrashing toward the frame team, its sword almost comically turned into a large spanking paddle, though the sheer size of it still made it quite dangerous.

"Fawk, I guess I gotsta let out my feathah's, too, eh?" Shinji complained, not liking the idea of using the fragile drones in such an 'enclosed' space as the forest, but it seemed they simply needed the extra firepower, and so, three of Shinji's drones broke free of their docks, flying out to swerve around trees as Shinji concentrated on flying the machines to their target, where they opened fire, directing a number of energy blasts to the center of the machine's back.

Meena's fire continued, though her slow, methodical shots turned into a flurry of quickly aimed shots, hoping that the loss in accuracy would be made up for in volume of fire.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Viktoria smiled as Zil's knee gave in after anohter round from her rifle, but that smile came too soon. Enemy mecha'S sword came, hitting her and sending her flying. She flew some distances too stunned by the moment of surprise to hit boosters to stop. One of the big trees was nice enough to stop her.

"Arrgh, VERDAMNT!" Viki sweared as she was getting back on her legs. Just in time to see Yoshiko being hit. "Ged where does that thing have a pilot?" She asked AI as she was moving back in the fray. She raised her rifle waiting for a response from Ged, prepared to shoot at the place and keep shooting till either her weapons will be empty to Zilant's pilot will be somthing resembling a meat pudding.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

She blinked and she missed it. She hesitated, and so much happened. Damn the power armors for getting underfoot a crucial time, Taela would remember to curse later. One moment wasted in trying to avoid crushing her comrades, and the Ziliant goes nuts. The Neko wasted no time in unloading the first clip for her AKTG on the rampaging mecha, additionally levying several blasts of her built-in heavy cannons against it. She didn't know Yoshiko's status, but there would be all hell to pay once she found out.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Mark writhed in his seat. He came in and out from the force of the fall. He was certain that whiplash was involved somehow. The former journalist smacked Yoshiko's shoulder a couple of time to check for a response before trying to radio out.

"This is Vintropolis." His voice was grainy, moaning, "Yoshiko's disabled, maybe in need of medical help. I, uh, don't know if we can get out of the cockpit without being flipped over, because I don't know if we're on our back or our front or... ugh."

Mark yanked his helmet off just in time to fill it with some of his fine Nepleslian digestive fluid. He struggled to stay concious, and figure out which direction they were facing. He reached forward to Yoshiko again, this time searching for her pulse. His stomach reached for the seat when he did so, causing him to retreat and turn up nothing.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Lucien was having a difficult time perceiving which way was up, and which way was down for all of a few seconds as he and his frame went hurtling across the forest, snapping and breaking trees in its wake. This could've given anyone else the wise idea of using Frames for logging operations, but Lucien was more focussed on thinking of swear words and nick names for the Zillant.

He had landed uncomfortably, and he eventually picked himself up, and found his weapons scattered nearby. He was barely able to keep the contents of his stomach as he retrieved his handheld Gauss Gun and his Longsword. The Scotsman was understandably miffed about this turn of events.

He charged towards the Zillant with his longsword in one hand, a gauss gun on full-auto in the other and a reckless lack of self preservation. He was going to perforate and cut the giant frame open as it crawled along the ground.

He would've been screaming his regular, yowling scream of rage, but if he did, his lunch would come with it.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Vic! We're on our own, remember?" Kelly quickly answered the Abwehran woman. With the Atuan II possibly tailed after dropping them off, there was no chance it'd stick around - they were on their own! The Ensign had to think fast; where would the cockpit go? Left? Right? No - center! It was always inline with the center! "Hit it center mass under the neck ring!" He ordered hastily, gambling that would be close enough to either pierce the cockpit or sever something important.

From his position in the cockpit, Mark could see the entire team simply waste the oversized, paper armored frame as it crawled after them - it's ruined face turned to him in its death throes. Sparks and hot fragments fell from the frame as armor piercing rounds and ultraviolet lasers riddled the body - a single malformed metal hand reached out towards his and Yoshiko's knocked-out frame before fire hailed into the outstretched hand. A green blur intercepted to hack and slash the limb away from them. Sparks flew as Lucien's blade bit into the hand and severed several fingers like the necks of a many headed serpent before cleaving into the wrist and forearm. Weapons' fire finally punched straight through the back and caused to to fall at last. Though it was only on all fours, the ground shook and literally rippled as the Zilant finally collapsed on the ground, throwing up dirt and debris into the air.

Even the team's frames were lifted into the air by a good half foot.

Yoshiko awoke with a start. "Guh-wha?" she spoke up, confused. The girl took in the scene with her eyes quietly for a moment before bursting. "No, no, no! I had a redout or something!" the Ex-Neko cried out hysterically. "AND I missed it kicking the bucket! How could this get any worse?" Yoshiko pleaded. As she slumped into her chair, her nose wrinkled at a smell. As Yoshiko's eyes widened, she turned around slowly, only to see Mark hanging over her with a helmet full of 'goodies'. "Don't spill it! Toss it out already!!!" she panicked, her fist slamming onto the cockpit release button and blowing open the hatch.

Kelly meanwhile exhaled a breath of relief. From what he could immediately tell, Yoshiko was fine judging by her chatter, the Zilant was disabled and the PA Team supporting them was all green across the board - he watched an action figure sized individual thumb up from the forest floor and had his pink frame return the gesture. "I have no idea of that was the right call everyone, but get your stuff together fast - we gotta keep moving and make as much noise as possible" he spoke before quickly glancing at the sensor screen. It was all static. Kelly hoped no one else noticed quite yet, and tried to lighten the mood while everything was pieced together.

"Lucien, Victoria. You two alright?" he asked. The cornrowed Nepleslian saw them swatted aside by the flat of the blade like they were meatballs being pushed around by a fork. It couldn't have been good, and judging from the former's silence, it wasn't at all. This worried him. He couldn't see any real physical damage though - their frames, though with a paint job now requiring a bit of a touch up, were fine. The pilots however, were the real question. Kelly didn't want to loose anybody now, or ever. His eye fell on the Neko of their group, her own frame practically untouched. "Taela, don't freeze up next time, got it?" Kelly asked in a tone as friendly as he could manage. "They're big, but they got a soft skin, so just keep shooting, alright?"

He eyed the jammed sensors again. "Mark - if we go with active sensors and boost our signals, we might be able to figure what's coming our way, but give our position to them in return" Kelly explained. "I know we all signed up for testing, but we all know this isn't it right now. So I'm giving you all a choice about how we do things." Knowing the flow of things, Kelly guessed it was either going to be one hell of a party to remember, or a bar room brawl from hell.

*****

Camellia and her squad had the task of infiltrating the facility while the two other teams made a massive distraction. After all, what was more overt and noisy than a few eight meter tall giant robots on a rampage? Her squad managed to get away during the fray and even neutralize some hostiles on the way out. Now however, they found themselves traveling down alongside a river at a half crouch with the bluff it had carved into the earth as cover.

But they weren't alone.

Another group of something was nearby, apparently getting ready to move in on Kelly's Team that was acting as a distraction. The bubbling of the river that cut through the forest acted to cover up any sounds the two groups made, so it was only luck Camellia's scout noticed them first. Should they break their stealthy crawl to the facility and engage? Or risk a radio message to warn the rest - nobody would think less of them if they kept on advancing covertly. After all, that was what they were supposed to do.

Either way, it was their move, and her choice.

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

That last falling shock from the Zillant prompted the contents of Lucien's stomach to begin their journey to horrible horrible freedom.
"Welp-" He bubbled over the comm lines before taking off his helmet, reaching into a vacuumed sickness tube as provided by the Frame's rudimentary AI, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve before putting his helmet back on, "Sorry mate, wot'd, er-" Cough, "-you say?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

"Vintropolis here." Mark delicately tossed the helmet overhead and into the smoldering wreckage of the Zilant's outstretched arm. He tried to explain his notion simply, "Boosting the sensors would be good for a head-on scrap, I think, but I'd rather not taste my bacon a third time today if we get into something we can't deal with."

Mark set a preset on the Kirin's CECS for the first option while he explained another, his mind still turning about potential electronic warfare options. He was starting to forget just how shaken he was by the fall.

"I think it's worth mentioning that when some cat jams your sensors, they're still broadcasting. I can try to isolate the frequency and use the Kirin's modified CECS to work as a sort of dousing rod. It ain't perfect, but we'll know where they're comin' from. There is a catch, natrually."

Mark gave a few more sputtering coughs into the microphone before continuing, a darker tone corrupting his voice. "Once I do it, they'll know we're listening, and if they got a EWO worth his salt... It'll be a game of cat-and-mouse from their."

The former reporter leaned back in his seat and pulled open the storage compartment to retrieve a rag he'd left in the Kirin the first time he sat in it. As he wiped the sweat from his head and face, Mark finished, "Does any of that work with any of your strategies, Farms?"

Re: Episode 7: Mine!

Taela's mecha was by far the least affected by the shock of the Ziliant collapsing, considering her distance. So while everybody was busy saying hello to their lunches, she spent her time positioning herself more closely with the group.

"I am sorry about the hold up. . ." She half mumbled once she was close enough. "I flinched."